(ARCHIVED) Littlest Pet Shop: Fancy Food Mayhem
by President Razaq
Summary: (Temporarily discontinued for now. I would advise not to read, as I will rewrite the story and renewed it in the future)
1. There is a new restaurant?

It is an ordinary day at the Littlest Pet Shop. Like usual, it isn't making as much business as any other store that has ever existed, but it is peaceful and that's all what makes the Littlest Pet Shop the perfect place to hang out with pets. As we enter the shop, we see Mrs. Twombly at the counter, using her laptop. She appears to be trying to outbid Fisher Biskit at an online auction for another collectible doorknob. Sounds boring, right? But no one can blame her. After all, there was nothing else for her to do, except waste her hopes and energy trying to greet customers who enter Littlest Pet Shop, just to realize that they are only asking for some directions to another shop, or just looking for a business with a similar name to Littlest Pet Shop. It's happened loads of times…

But fret not, because the Littlest Pet Shop has its own day camp, and that's where the real fun is at! In the day camp area, there are were seven pets who come to the day camp daily, and they were just doing their own things. Except for one particularly cute panda who was just sitting in front of a window. It was the kind but sensitive, Penny Ling. And she represents the element of ADORABLENESS.

Wait, where am I going with this? This isn't My Little Pony. Anyway…

Penny Ling is an adorable, cute and sweet white and blue Panda. She likes to cuddle and loves eating. While she is sweet and caring, try not to drive her crazy; she can go nuts.

In the day camp, Penny Ling was just staring outside the window, happily waiting for something. Somebody, who was a few meters behind her, noticed that she was excited about something, which left that person curious. He decided to walk up to her and call her. "Penny Ling!"

Penny Ling turned and realized that the voice was from no other than her trustworthy hedgehog friend, Russell! Penny Ling waved cheerfully and greeted back "Hey Russell!"

Russell Ferguson, a smart and organized hedgehog, likes to enjoy having fun with his friends while keeping things safe around Littlest Pet Shop. He may not know it, but his friends are grateful for having him around.

Anyway, Russell was quite keen to ask what Penny Ling was waiting for. _I wonder could Penny Ling is waiting for_ , he thought.

"Looking forward to something?" he asked.

Penny Ling answered excitedly "Yup. Blythe promised me yesterday that a fancy restaurant will open today, and it's not far from here! She said she'd take me there when she comes down from her room."

Russell was curious. _A restaurant recently opened and is nearby… how surprising_ , he thought.

As a matter of fact, he was even more curious of what Penny Ling is doing to pass the time, because she was staring outside the window. "So… why are you staring out the window?"

"Oh, I'm waiting for Blythe to come."

"But Blythe is upstairs and she'll arrive via the dumb waiter."

"Oh yeah… I guess you're right."

A figure approached silently behind Russell, holding out something towards Russell's back and stood still, waiting for the right moment. What was that figure holding?

While the figure was waiting, Russell did feel proud of himself. "Of course! Us hedgehogs are always right. Well, per my calculations last updated weeks ago…"

"How do you calculate that?"

"All you need to do is just ask me a question, and then I answer it. The amount of times I answer a correction correctly, divided by how many questions I've been asked in total, will give the average percentage of my accuracy. That's how I calculate it, Penny Ling. Speaking of weeks ago, it's time to update it again. Let me just take out my notepad over here, and ask me a few more questions, ok?"

"Ok. I'll try to come up with some questions."

It was time for him to retest. However, before he could, he suddenly got splashed with red and yellow paint, that fell from above. He wasn't furious, but was fed up, as if it happened a million times. It was clearly no other than…

"Minka…!" he yelled.

Minka the monkey was hanging from the ceiling, and was painting on a canvas that was also hanging from the ceiling.

Minka is a pink spider monkey who loves painting, and it involves making a lot of mess! A lot. She may get hyperactive sometimes, and hates being in enclosed spaces! Hint, space monkey.

She looked down to find Russell in paint and chuckles as she lets out with an awkward apology. "Hehe… sorry Russell. I was painting a picture of you. You want to see it?"

Her canvas had a painting of Russell, and as she focuses on the real Russell, she noticed that the real Russell was covered in red and yellow paint. So, she decided to throw red and yellow paint at the Russell in the canvas, to match the current scenario.

"Perfect!" she approved as she gave a thumbs-up to the portrait.

After hearing her apology and admiring her portrait, Russell knew she'd do something like this again soon, so he just forgave her as he tried to wipe the red paint of his quills.

"It's fine" he said, "No need to apologize. But I'll admit, the painting looks great." The portrait looked very accurate to him. But he wondered if Minka also knew anything about Blythe taking Penny Ling to a restaurant, because Russell was usually the first pet to get Blythe's news. "By the way, did you hear about Blythe promising something about a restaurant opening?"

Minka was just being herself as she responded after a moment of thought. "Mm… A restaurant?! Huh, I didn't hear Blythe mentioning it, but I bet that sounds tasty! I don't mean the building of course! I meant the food! The food in the restaurant is tasty! Or maybe the restaurant is tasty too! It's probably a gingerbread house! But a gingerbread house is a cookie, so maybe it's like a gingerbread house, but without gingerbread and instead meat! Like a meat house!"

She went on and on and on…

Russell thought that Minka probably already went off into her own imagination as she starts daydreaming about tasty food, and then decides to put on a new canvas, to paint some fancy food. Such inspiration!

Russell finally turned, to find a figure in front of him. The figure showed an object to him. In case we were wondering what object it was, it was… a small, harmless marshmallow!

Russell's quills instantly stuck out, and his pupils went as tiny as a pixel on a TV. Remember, he is so afraid of marshmallow! He thinks they are… creepy and squishy…

Russell instantly curled into a ball and jumped high into the air as he cowardly cried. "Somebody save me! Marshmallow!"

The figure was finally visible, and it just so happened to be Vinnie!

Vincent "Vinnie" Terrio is a green gecko, who is a great dancer! Well, he's a great dancer without his tail being in the way. He's clumsy sometimes, but he's a great and playful friend, and that's all that matters. He's Sunil's best friend, and he enjoyed watching Sunil perform his latest tricks.

He chuckled as he looked up to Russell in mid-air. "Hah! Sunil was right!" he claimed, "Marshmallows do scare you!"

When Vinnie looked down, he glanced a yellow rubber chicken sliding across his face as he got smacked by it and fell. The only one who would have a rubber chicken is Pepper Clark.

Pepper Clark is a comedian skunk, who loves making jokes and making everybody laugh. She may take her jokes too far without realizing, and feels remorse when she does realize it, which is normally too late.

Now, Pepper didn't find Vinnie's prank amusing in her opinion. In fact, she found it rather insulting to her innocent friend.

"Vinnie!" Pepper called in a tone that sounded she was giving a lecture. "That wasn't very nice! What if you hurt his feelings?"

Vinnie tried to get up after being smacked by Pepper's rubber chicken. Unfortunately for Vinnie, Russell finally descended from mid-air, while still curled up in a spiky ball, and landed right on Vinnie! Russell's quills were piercing through Vinnie's green scales. Yikes! We could already tell how painful that was, as Vinnie cried painfully in pain!

While she observed the two critters, Pepper was busy scratching her head and thinking about a something. She then realized that she hit Vinnie and then Russell also hit Vinnie; that meant a double combo! Considering Russell's spikes, she thought of the perfect joke, and thinking about it just started to make her burst into laughter. She fell and rolled on the floor, still laughing.

Pepper says as she laughs "Now that's… a spiky combo! Good one, Russell!"

A blue mongoose, Sunil calmly walks over to Vinnie, who's still in pain.

Sunil is a blue mongoose. While he is calm most of the time, he easily freaks out at anything, even spiders! Nevertheless, he is a good magician, he can perform a lot of tricks. For example, the switcheroo trick, which still isn't mastered yet. He's Vinnie's best friend, and he enjoyed performing his latest tricks in front of Vinnie.

Currently, Sunil approaches Vinnie and challenges him.

"Very good, Vinnie. You may be able to scare Russell," Sunil states with confidence. "But I have used a magical spell that has made me finally lose my fears! I bet you will not be able to scare me now, green scaly friend!"

Sunil? Brave? Hah! Hard to believe, isn't it? In fact, there just happens to be a cute, friendly spider on the table nearby. Sunil decided turned left, accidentally facing the spider, and the spider just waved happily at him. Aww…

Sunil, on the other hand, didn't get the message. Instead, he instantly jumps, turns 180°, and flees while screaming in his irritating tone! As he sprints, he swiftly brushes by Zoe, who was in his way, and leaves her constantly spinning for a few seconds. A few seconds later, she tumbled with dizziness.

Zoe Trent is a fabulous purple Cavalier King Charles Spaniel, with a gifted talent for being a role model and singing! While she may be caring and friendly to her friends, she is easily jealous of anyone getting more fame then her. Remember when Sunil got more popular than her just because he was featured in a meme? She was desperate to get more popular than him! She was even willing to get covered in peanut butter, just to get fame! But she's managed to get over the jealousy now, caring about her friends more. However, she can still be a diva and an absolute show off! Won't take my word for it?

As she struggled to get up, she advices "Sunil, darling. You should try to get over your fears now. It takes time for you to get over your fears. However, a few pets like me didn't need time to have what we want. Being a good walker and singer wasn't just a talent that came from any dog. It normally takes time for a dog to work well with the camera. But for me, I was born with that talent! It's like I was made for the cameras!"

See what I mean about a show off?

As Zoe continued showing off and talking while posing in front of her mirror, Pepper listened and just scoffed, unamused. "Huh, yeah right. Great advice, Zoe."

These were the pets that day camp in the Littlest Pet Shop. But we are missing one more person…

A dumbwaiter, on the wall of the day-care room, made a knocking sound. Minka bounces excitedly and gets down from the ceiling, landing on the ground; she knew what would make that noise. Rather, WHO would make that noise.

"Blythe's here!" Minka says.

Drums please.

[The drums play for a few seconds]

The dumbwaiter opened, and there was a figure inside. It was a human figure, and it climbed out of the dumbwaiter with a smile. Minka was right. It is Blythe!

Blythe Baxter, a girl with passion for becoming a well-known pet designer one day, is a friendly girl with an open personality, and the only one who can understand pets. She's not sure how she got the ability, but it is the best thing that has ever happened to her.

She was small enough to fit inside the dumbwaiter, despite her freakishly large head. Anyway, all the pets approached her in a flash and hopped around in cheer. Blythe understood that the pets seemed a lot more excited than usual, and greeted. "Woah! Hi, you guys look excited! What's going on?"

Blythe walked over to a couch in the day camp area, to sit down. The pets grouped up in front of her, still excited.

Russell was the first to answer, "Hey, Blythe. Is it true that you are taking us somewhere?"

"Sorry, Blythe. I couldn't keep it a secret!" Penny Ling admitted with a grin.

"It's alright, Penny Ling. But that's right, Russell. I'm taking you all to a restaurant that has just opened today!" Blythe announced proudly.

 _It's about time these pets did something active instead of lazing about anyway_ , she thought.

Hearing this surprising news made all the pets jump and cheer even louder! They've never been in a restaurant before! Except Zoe. This is a new adventure for them!

While this was good news, Pepper was a little doubtful, as she thought that this news was far too good to be true. She remembered that restaurants weren't very fond of having pets around. Especially fancy restaurants. "But Blythe, don't you remember that pets aren't allowed in restaurants?"

"Yes, but luckily, this restaurant apparently doesn't mind pets." Blythe pointed out. "I got a personal text from them a few moments ago, saying that I can bring my pets with me if I wanted to."

The pets were relieved to hear that. But Vinnie pointed out too. "But Blythe, you're not our owners. We'd have to bring all our owners with us, and it wouldn't be great evening. Think about it."

All the pets and Blythe thought about what would happen if they brought their own owners. Oh boy, here comes a fantasy!

[They all imagined themselves in the restaurant. The owners were all sitting in separate tables, with their pets sitting beside them. The owners seemed to have quite a delightful time, sipping on some tea. However, the pets are sitting next to their own owners, and they struggled to get together in a group. But worst of all, all their owners had leashes attached to their pets! They couldn't move away!

But with some effort of the pets pulling themselves from the owners as they forcefully pulled the rope from the pet leash, they finally met each other. On the other hand, the owners simultaneously pressed the button on their leash handles. As soon as the pets meet, they all flew like slingshots, flying all the way back to their chairs next to their own owners. All the owners close their eyes while looking slightly higher, to look somewhat formal and classy, while the pets were unhappy as they looked down.]

Russell took the pets out of that thought and optimized. "Well, it may not be like that!"

Minka also agreed without haste. "Yeah! Maybe there would be tables for the owners and a special room for pets like us! Like the day camp area in Littlest Pet Shop!"

All the pets and Blythe thought about this optimistic situation. This is a good fantasy this time, trust me.

[They all imagined a one large table in the restaurant, and it was fully occupied by the pets' owners. They seem to have an enjoyable time as they all socialized with each other. But enough of them, because it's time to find out where the pets are. There is a glass wall with a glass door. Behind it is another room, made for pets. The room was colorful with multiple colors on the walls and ceiling like beige, pink, blue and several tons of other colors. There were a bunch of toys everywhere and seesaws, slides and sandpits around the room. In the middle of the room, there was a big round table. There were pets were seated on the table: Russell, Minka, Zoe, Pepper, Vinnie, Penny Ling and Sunil. They were all eating spaghetti happily as Pepper told jokes and made the other pets laugh, and then the whole evening ended as the pets had a fun food fight with cakes and dessert.]

The ideal thought was waved away by Sunil as he doubtfully objected about something, "But, if this is a room for pets, then Blythe can't come with us…"

The pets couldn't argue with that. Without Blythe, the pets would constantly feel bad for her not being with them. That was until Blythe turned things around. "Come on, guys. You don't need your owners to come with you, you know?"

The pets looked at Blythe with hope. "Really?" Zoe asked excitedly.

"Well, yeah," Blythe confirmed. "I can just take you to the restaurant and claim that I'm the owner of all you guys. Then things will be cool from then."

"Do you really think the people working at the restaurant would believe you own a dog, a hedgehog, a mongoose, a skunk, a panda, a monkey and a gecko all at once?" asked Vinnie.

"Why not? What's the worst that could happen?" Blythe asked. The pets couldn't think of a bad scenario, so their hopes were rising once again. Zoe couldn't wait! She was more excited than Minka, and that's TOO excited!

She said excitedly as she got impatient "Great! So?! What are we waiting for?! Let's go!"

All the pets cheered, and Blythe got up from the couch, leading the pets outside the pet shop, towards her scooter. The pink scooter had a small basket on the front, and a carriage attached to the side of the scooter. She waited for the pets to get on the carriage of the scooter, then she got on the scooter. Most of the pets got on the scooter, while Zoe and Russell sat in the basket on the fronted the scooter.

Eager to go, Blythe put on her seatbelt. (Is there even a seatbelt in a scooter?!) She then turned on the engine, and wore her helmet. The pets also wore their own pet-sized helmets. Blythe asked "Ready?"

The pets cheered; sounds like they're ready. Accelerating on the scooter, Blythe and the pets zoomed off to the restaurant!


	2. Pets too?

Blythe is riding on her pink scooter with her pets. Russell and Zoe are on the basket in front of the scooter, and the rest of the pets are on the small pink carriage that was attached beside the scooter. Sunil and Vinnie were on the carriage, looking around the city. Vinnie spotted a UFO in the distance, it was on top of a large building. He chuckled and elbowed Sunil.

"Hey," he called, "Remember that time we saw a UFO and freaked out, but it just turned out to be a balloon on the Largest Ever Pet Store?!"

Everyone remembered that time and laughed as they made come comments about it. Unexpectedly, a few seconds later, the UFO floated up into the sky…

The pets all looked in surprise and in silence. "What the huh?" Blythe said in shock. A few seconds of awkward silence, Pepper, who was on the carriage too, tapped Blythe and asked a question. "Blythe?"

Blythe shook her head, trying to forget about the UFO. "Yeah?"

"Did you say you got a text saying that you can bring your pets?"

"Yep! Maybe she's someone who's into animals."

"Well. Did you get that message after you were told that the restaurant opened?"

"I guess. It was a separate text message. Why?"

"It kind of sounds like they know you or something."

This got Blythe thinking. "Oh yeah…" she agreed, "Now that you mention it, it is kind of odd. Well, maybe it was Sue. She's probably working there." She tried to make the most of it.

Pepper felt confident and thought that it did seem to make more sense. "I guess your right" She agreed.

"Oops…" Blythe said and stopped the scooter. All the pets faced towards her, waiting for what she was going to say, as if she made a big mistake or something.

She smiled awkwardly as she said "I may have forgotten the restaurant and just passed it 20 minutes ago. I forgot it was just at the end of the road…"

She awkwardly laughed, but the pets were unamused and just face palmed. _lol_

Turning around, they went back to the restaurant, where they passed 20 minutes ago.

Another 20 minutes have passed and they're finally here! They all stopped outside the restaurant, the restaurant had wine red color walls, as well as a large, classic porch. The building had fancy-looking tall windows with red curtains and gold frames around. The most noticeable thing was the huge, black, rectangular sign with gold frames above the expensive doors. The sign said "Biskuete" as a neat, fancy-looking, gold title, like it was handwritten as a signature.

 _Biskuete? Blythe thought. Why does that title sound familiar?_

That didn't matter now, as Blythe and the other pets were absolutely astonished by the exterior view of the restaurant. Their eyes were huge and sparkly to prove that! Once they finished indulging the view, Blythe decided to remove her helmet, get out of the scooter and ask the pets as they removed their helmets.

"Any of you guys ever been to a fancy restaurant before?" Blythe eagerly asked. The pets agreed, but Zoe just couldn't wait. She just loved fancy restaurants!

"A lot of times!" Zoe yipped excitedly, "But I think this one takes the cake! Literally!" She yipped even louder, she would probably enjoy it the most out of all the pets!

Blythe was glad to hear Zoe's response. "Well, let's give this one a shot." She announced.

All the pets jumped out the scooter joyfully and Blythe led them towards the expensive door of the restaurant.


	3. You!

The pets follow Blythe as she approaches the door. The doorknob was golden, which instantly caught Minka's attention. "Shiny…" she went to reach for the doorknob, but was pulled back by Zoe. She suggested "Minka… We need to be sensible and formal, especially in a fancy restaurant like-"

All the pets ran past Zoe and pushed open the door. Zoe just sighed with a smile and walked in like a lady. Blythe followed them. The pets and Blythe walked in.

It was magnificent! Zoe and Blythe's eyes were wide open in amazement! They had never seen anything so beautiful! It is a red room, with the rarest paintings displayed on the walls with 24k gold frames. There weren't light bulbs, but instead, candles everywhere that lit the room and they let out a fresh rosy smell which was being enjoyed by Sunil as he finds it relaxing. Russell was staring in awe at the paintings and wondering how old they were. Minka was there too, but only because of the golden frame that what holding the paintings. She was practically drooling at the gold!

They looked around to find that there were 10 tables, on the edge of the room, and they had red and gold silky tablecloths. With different sauces on the table as well as a candle on each table. But no one was there, the place was empty.

"Why is there nobody here? I hope this is not a takeaway restaurant" said Sunil

"It's a normal fancy restaurant," Blythe said, "I think people come here at night, but right now is 2:20pm"

Zoe was excited "So we're the first customers!" She said

The pets came together in a group and went towards the cashier to take seats. There were two people facing the other way, looking like they are texting. Blythe made a voluntary cough to catch their attention "Uh um, excuse me? We would like to book the seats here. I know it's not the right time, but I just wanted to try it out before it gets crowded, if you not what I'm saying hah…" Blythe was so good at making situations awkward.

The people turned to face them, using their phones, but these people weren't complete strangers to Blythe after all!

"Whittany?! Brittany?!" Blythe called surprisingly.

"Blythe?!" They responded in surprise as well!

"You run this place?!" She asked.

Both were wearing cute waitress dresses. Whittany wore one in white, while Brittany wore one in black. It contrasts well with their hair color, while looking adorable! They looked down and noticed that Blythe brought the pets with them. Brittany made an unamused face as she saw Minka's drool on her chin.

 _Like, barf._ She thought.

"Like, eww." Whittany commented on Blythe's pets

Minka swiftly wiped the remaining drool of her chin and chuckled awkwardly. While the Biskit twins stared at the pets in disgust, the pets stared back with anger. Even Zoe snarled loudly at them, and made Whittany jump into Brittany's arms. _How cute,_ Blythe thought with a smile.

"Get this, like, dog away from me!" Whittany commanded. Brittany just sighed and dropped Whittany. She got back up and wiped dirt off her dress.

"Well we are at the, thing where you, like, book your tables." Whittany pointed out "So… Yeah, I think so."

Blythe thought that sounded sarcastic, but they are the Biskit twins, so you couldn't tell most of the time… She took a deep breath and tried look on the bright side. _Well they are just doing their job, so I'll just have to go with it,_ she thought.

Brittany was being impatient as she suggested "This is the part where you, like, book your tables or whatever."

Whittany budged Brittany, as if she forgot something. She gasped and hesitated while saying "Actually, we don't have any chefs so maybe you could, like, serve the customers."

Blythe was confused "What?"

"Basically," Whittany explained "we don't have any chefs to serve the customers that will come this evening. So, we are, like, hiring you."

"But I don't have any experience in cooking lasagna and people-shaped cakes!"

"It's fine," Brittany said "We'll, like give you that book thing. It's got letters and, words inside that tells you how to make food. It's also got numbers if you're, like, interested."

Whittany commented "Eww, don't say that. Numbers are, like, gross."

"Like, barf." Brittany agreed without expressing disgust.

"A cookbook?" Blythe correct with a smirk.

There goes Brittany being dramatic "Yeah! Ugh, these smart words are starting to get inside my, like, brain!"

Whittany was disgusted "Eww, Brittany. Don't, like, say that word. It's, like, that pink gooey squishy goo that's inside your head."

"Like, barf." Brittany said unemotionally.

"Yeah, totally. Like, barf." Whittany said with half-closed eyes.

This was what a Biskit twins' normal convention sounds like, so don't think of it as "weird".

"Ok, but what if I just want to come here for a meal?" questioned Blythe. The Biskits thought they had no other choice.

The Biskits got on their knees and looked up to Blythe, with a depressing puppy face. Blythe knew she was not going to make it through.

"They are such divas!" commented. The other pets just stared at her. "What?"

 _The Biskits look too cute! Cuteness overload!_ Blythe just couldn't handle it any longer…

"OK!" Blythe gave up "It gets me every time! Not only on pets, but now on humans too?!"

The Biskits got up in delight. Whittany, on the other hand, jumped up and hugged Blythe as she said in joy "Thanks!"

Brittany pulled her by the collar and said "Like, great, or whatever."

Brittany didn't even seem surprised or somewhat amused. Blythe, however, felt happier. _Yep, I knew Brittany didn't COMPLETELY hate me._

She watched Whittany fixing her collar and then took her and the pets to the kitchen.

"Wait!" Brittany called before they entered the kitchen "You can't, like, let the pets enter the kitchen too, you know?!"

Whittany agreed as usual "I know, right? They'll give germs to the food. And the customers will, like, get germs and become sick."

"Like, barf."

"Uh-huh. Totally."

"Don't worry," reassured Blythe, "They are clean pets."

The twins thought Blythe was an animal genius, _or whatever,_ so they finally decided to let her bring her pets into the kitchen with her.

Blythe wore white chef clothes along with the chef hat. T _he pets wore the same,_ _only the littlest pet version. Pun intended…_

With Blythe and the pets in their chef outfits, they were about to get ready to work as chefs in the fanciest restaurant in Downtown City! They all seemed excited and eager, except for Zoe who wanted to be the customer.

"So much for fancy hang out times and eating the fancy food…" Zoe said in disappointment.

Russell turned things around for Zoe with a smile while spinning a fork "I'm sure the customers won't mind us having a little nibble at the food we're about to create." He stopped spinning the fork and winked.

Sunil questioned as he looked at himself. "How on earth did this restaurant even have the chef outfits in our sizes?"


	4. We can, somehow

It was only an hour before night, and that was when customers would storm in.

Keep in mind that Blythe and the pets did come in too early, and that's why no one was here. The Biskits informed Blythe that the first scheduled customer was in 58 minutes.

Blythe and the pets were in the kitchen, planning. The pets were on the counter, watching Blythe reading through the cook book while rechecking the ingredients, but it looked like she was frustrated.

"Ugh!" she groaned "I can't do this! I can't believe I fell for the Biskits' puppy eyes!" she said as she imitated their puppy faces from before. The pets chuckled a bit at the imitation, but did feel some sympathy towards Blythe. Blythe didn't want to get tied to this. She put her head on the counter.

 _I just wanted to try out the food_. Being a chef was far more difficult than she thought.

The Biskits enter to check on Blythe. They looked around to see the kitchen clean. They were impresses, but tried to not show it. Because it would, like, ruin their reputation. _Or, whatever…_

"You do know what to do, right?" Brittany asked. "I will, like, take orders from the customers, and give you the papers with the words on them. Make whatever t- "

"Yeah yeah yeah… Make whatever the, like, paper says, or, like, whatever!" Blythe said in an imitating voice.

"Ugh. Don't be mean to us! We are, like, your boss!" Brittany snapped

Blythe just wanted to get it over with as she said "Listen. I just don't want to do this, okay?"

She thought of an idea. If she couldn't quit, then she would have to something so bad, that the Biskits would happily send her away. She had to force herself to get fired! She had a quick think and thought of a solution as a bulb lit up above her head. The bulb, however, was an actual bulb in the ceiling, turned on by Pepper with a smirk. Very clever…

"Whittany? Brittany? Did I mention you two look cute in those waitress outfits?" Blythe faked with a forced smile.

"I think you should wear it more often." She suggested with slight disgust in her fake smile as her left eye couldn't resist twitching. She almost threw up at that suggestion! Looks like she'd never say it again for the world!

The Biskits glanced at each other, and then looked down to check out their dress. Blythe made a sneaky smile this time. _They're distracted! This is my chance!_ She whooped out her phone in a flash and snapped a picture of them smiling at their dresses.

"Like, hey!" Whittany yelled.

Blythe felt cool as she spun her phone in her hand, stopped spinning it in her hand, and then blew the top part of her phone, like a man blowing the smoke of his gun after he shoots with it. _Now THAT'S what I call a draw!_

"Get rid of that pic! What are you gonna do with it?!" Brittany said.

"Oh, I dunno… maybe edit it and make you ugly?" Blythe suggested with a chill face. "And then show the edit to you. It will be so ugly, you will, like, barf!"

"You will, like, so regret this!" Brittany threatened.

"You're gonna fire me?!" Blythe asked with a bright smile and great hope!

Whittany said. "Fire you?! I'd rather make you lose your job than fire you!"

 _What…?_

"That's the same thing…" Blythe corrected, seeming disappointed in them.

"Whatever, dictionary." Whittany called her, not caring "Instead, we'll have to let you work overtime! Without raise!"

"Ugh. Dictionaries. Too many words." Brittany mumbled.

"What the huh?!" Blythe yelled in shock and got on her knees as she pointed at the girls. "You can't make me do extra work!"

The Biskit twins suddenly had an idea as they saw Blythe in that pose. They instantly took out their phones and took a picture of Blythe, while she's still in her outfit and while she's still on her knees, how embarrassing! _You have got to be kidding me… I guess what goes around, comes around._

"Hey! What are you going to do with that picture?!" Blythe asked with anger, _added with a side of shock._

"Unlike, like, you, we don't need to edit this." Brittany informed. The Biskits made their own evil smiles. It sends cold chills to people, it's practically like their own signature or something…

"Totally," Whittany added, "We can just, like, share this picture with the whole school, and show the school how desperate you were to work with us. Even though you, like, didn't want to."

"We'll share this picture with everyone… unless you do your job!" she threatened.

Blythe was jeopardized by the Biskits… again… _Man! They are good at getting what they want!_

"So, like, prepare. NOW!" Whittany yelled, like a big gang boss that would haunt you for a lifetime. They then walked out, laughing like evil twins. Well, they are evil twins anyway…

Blythe was in danger. She HAD to work for the Biskits. Otherwise, her reputation level will go from zero to minus one! "Ugh!" She said as she laid her head on the table, hopeless. On the other hand, Vinnie was bored.

"Blythe? Do you mind if I peek out of the kitchen, see what else is there to do?" asked Vinnie.

"Knock yourself out…" she answered in despair. Vinnie then sighed in relief and was about to hop off the kitchen counter.

"Now hold on!" Russell demanded while holding onto Vinnie's tail. "Blythe, don't worry. We'll help you."

He accidentally let go of Vinnie's tail, so Vinnie slowly tip-toed out the kitchen.

"Bravo, bravo… Very motivating, Russell…" said Sunil with a huge sense of sarcasm. "Hey! I'll have you know I'm very motivating, Sunil!" He argued.

He turned to Blythe and tried to comfort her as he said "It's alright! It's not that bad!"

She looked with a puppy face "But I don't know anything about cooking in restaurants. I knew I'd start at some point, I just didn't know it'd be now. I started this problem, by accepting the job. It was just tough to say no to them with their puppy faces."

"I'm sure it was too. But things will turn out great. They might even be grateful to you!"

Zoe scoffed "The Biskits? Be grateful to Blythe? I find that hard to believe, darling. You're clearly over exaggerating, Russell."

Zoe did have a point, but Russell knew how to optimize as always, "Well don't you remember the time when the Biskits instantly became BFFs with Blythe JUST because she protected them against a bully back in her basketball class?"

Blythe looked up to Russell with a slightly less worrying face, "True. Can you believe it? The Biskits were treating me like their lives were in debt and practically bought me everything."

Russell knew he was saying the right words "I know, right? Another thing you can try is maybe try asking your other friends for help, like Youngmee. You DID win that baking contest together after all, right?" He said with a wink.

Blythe's face finally gleamed with hope. "OMG, you're right!"

She grabbed Russell and hugged him tightly against her cheeks "Thanks! I couldn't do anything without you!" She said in joy.

Russell thought more than proud. _I knew I was good at advices,_ Russell thought deeply. _But… this is different… I finally feel… appreciated… by my best friend…_

He let out a tiny tear as he grinned widely, Blythe saw him crying, and slightly instantly stopped hugging and wiped out his tear of his face with her thumb "Russell, are you alright?" Blythe asked softly.

"Yeah!" Russell sang in pure happiness, "Just an emotional tear!"

Blythe realized there was more to these pets than just her reputation at school. After seeing his tear, she felt appreciated by Russell. Even she let out an emotional tear as well, but quickly wiped it before Russell noticed.

"Alright!" Blythe began "I'll call my friends to help out. And you guys will…" She was scratching her head, thinking of what they can do.

Vinnie interrupted as he ran back in the kitchen, announcing "Guys! You'll never believe what I saw! There's a stand-up and a catwalk! Together!"

Zoe and Pepper were of course the most interested ones. "Great!" Pepper commented as she swiftly got out of her chef outfit. "I can do a stand-up to the audience!"

Penny Ling reminded with concern "But, the audience cannot understand us, Pepper."

"Well, I'll just do a stand-up to the audience's pets!" Pepper said. "I think I have a better idea, darling" Zoe said as she budged Pepper to the side and sent her colliding into the pots and pans nearby!

"The catwalk is there for a reason too. We'll do a fashion show! This is a fancy restaurant after all." Zoe explained confidently with closed eyes, imagining herself walking down the catwalk and being praised by the audience. No one could argue with her, except Pepper. She didn't like that idea. She lifted a pot off her head and was about to object, but Blythe advised "Maybe all of you pets should go behind the catwalk and plan some sort of entertainment."

The pets agreed, and stormed out of the kitchen to the backstage. After they got there, Russell teased Sunil "Well? Aren't I _convincing…?"_ Russell sang as he danced away from Sunil.

He looks at Minka and says, "What has happened to this hedgehog?" Minka just shrugged.

The pets were deciding what to do to entertain the audience when they get there, while Blythe called Youngmee, Sue and Jasper over. Luckily, they all accepted to help her out will be here soon.

She hangs up and tries to comfort herself in the meantime.

 _"_ _Don't worry, Blythe"_ she thought to herself with shrinking confidence as she was biting her nails. The customers would be around in about 45 minutes. Her friends will be here soon. And the pets will think of some way to entertain hundreds of customers. _I'm sure I've been through worst!_

 _Everything will be just fine…_


	5. Friends are full of surprises!

The restaurant also had a stand up and an auditorium, believe it or not. The restaurant contains a stage in front of all the tables, with red curtains and a catwalk in the middle for some reason… at least this distracted Blythe while she was worrying. She looked out the door to see the stage, which the pets were behind. The idea of the catwalk was strange… _Why would a restaurant have a catwalk?! Doesn't mix with each other very well._

This did bother Blythe and she decided to go and ask the Biskits twins who were at the entrance of the restaurant, texting each other. _Can't they just talk to each other face to face?_

"We just put it there." Brittany said.

"JUST put it there?" Blythe responded.

"I guess…" Whittany confirmed and sighed.

"Why did you add a catwalk?"

"Well, we just wanted to have everything. And like, a catwalk would be cool. Who wouldn't want to enjoy a meal while checking out people's fashion on the catwalk?"

 _No one would…_

 _A fashion catwalk in front of dinner tables? What kind of routine is that?! Over half the customers would be put off by looking at the models. And don't they already have MORE than everything?!_

 _But they WERE the Biskits. So, I guess that would make a lot of sense._

"Why?" Brittany wondered.

"Ahh, well. The pets were willing to… perform an act?" Blythe guessed awkwardly as she smiled weakly.

"An act?" Brittany repeated and burst into laughter! "How did you know? Did they talk to you or something?"

 _They DID talk to me, they always have. But I don't want to blow my secret. Especially to the Biskits._

"Lucky guess?" Blythe said while she lowered her head with raised shoulders, arms and hands, combining to make the "I dunno" gesture.

"Why not? That's, like, fine by us." Whittany answered calmly while Brittany nodded uninterestingly, too interested in her phone.

Blythe sighed in relief. _I expected them to whine about it or something. Once you get to know the Biskits, they're not so bad. Especially Whittany._

Blythe was then reminded of the time her and Whittany were both stuck in the Biskits' bathrooms during their party. She remembered how well they got along.

 _(Sigh) If it wasn't for that bathroom doorknob getting fixed and unlocked back at the Biskits' mansion during their party, Whittany and I could've been actual friends…_

 _But, I'll find a way somehow… now's not the right time…_

Blythe left and returned to the kitchen, but noticed the phone that she used to call her friends, laying on one of the counter tables, then suddenly realized the main problem; her friends haven't arrived yet and the customers would come soon! _(Sigh) So much for temporary relief!_

While Blythe was too busy worrying, the pets were on the backstage of the auditorium. Everybody was talking at once and this got Russell mad. Every second he was covering his ears, but he just couldn't take it anymore.

"Quiet!" Russell shouted. No one heard him and kept on arguing. Luckily, Zoe decided to help him.

"QUIET!" She yelled and let out fearsome barks! Everybody was instantaneously frightened and sealed their lips as they turned towards Zoe and Russell. She stopped and immediately changed from a life-threatening top dog to a pretty little puppy again with a smile!

"Your welcome, Russell." Zoe said with a smile as she joined the pets and faced him. Russell looked surprised, but shook his head afterwards.

"Thanks, Zoe. Anyway, if we are going to keep the customers entertained while their meals are being made, then we will need to come with an efficient plan to do so."

"Efficiency-smefficiency!" Pepper commented "Of course our plan is going to entertain the audience!"

"But all of you guys want to do different things." Russell pointed out. "And that defines the opposite of efficiency!"

"I don't see why we can't do different things," Vinnie said, "maybe we can just show off our talents and do what we're good at?"

 _Talents?_ Russell thought.

 _Talents… Talents. Talents!_

"TALENTS! Vinnie, you're a genius!"

Vinnie felt really proud of that compliment and budged Sunil beside him "Did you hear that?! I'm a genie!"

Sunil corrected Vinnie happily "No, no, not a genie. You're a genius."

"Aww, thanks!"

Sunil raised an eyebrow in confusion.

"We can do a talent show first." suggested Russell.

"First?" Penny Ling asked, "You mean there's something else after?"

"That's right! We will show our talents and then after that… we'll do a play!"

"A play, eh? Well, as long as I'm the funny character, then that's fine by me!" Pepper said and chuckled.

"Great!" _A play should have a comedian to brighten things up after all._

"A play?" Zoe said in disappointment and sighed "I wanted to use the catwalk so I can try and look beautiful."

"Don't worry" Russell said and tried to cheer her up.

"I'll make sure you play as the most beautiful character in the play. After all, no one can perfect it like you."

Zoe felt warm from what Russell said and yipped in joy! But Zoe obviously knew that she would play as the most beautiful character, so she just nodded professionally afterwards. Honestly, she was bustling with excitement from inside! _If it won't be for me being the beautiful character, then no one will like the play! It will be a success!_

While Zoe was daydreaming about the success of the play, Russell had trouble thinking of a role for Penny Ling and Vinnie, due to Penny Ling's over exaggerated sensitivity along with Vinnie's predictable and impossible-to-avoid bloopers. _Guess they could be entertainers? Like the ads between TV shows!_

"Vinnie and Penny Ling," Russell commanded "you will be the dancers during the intermissions of the play."

Penny Ling agreed "Oh, I'll be able to do that."

"What's an intermission?" asked Vinnie as he scratched his head while squinting.

"Penny Ling will explain it to you later," said Russell "Minka, you will be the character who will paint portraits of humans."

Minka was so happy about that, that she straight away started painting portraits. _Why can't the others feel as motivated as her?_

"Sunil, I knew how good of a doctor you were back then when you were trying to recover Vinnie's tail. So now, you can be the doctor who happens to use magic to cure his patients."

"Perfect!" Sunil said as he covered his mouth with his magician cape "I will show the audience what kind of magic a mongoose can do."

He took out his magic wand and waved it in different motions and ended with "Abracadabra!" Nothing seemed to happen… _Awkward…_

"Anyway," Russell continued "Oh, and finally, my role is going to… Vinnie?" He realized Vinnie had gone.

"Uh oh," Sunil said with "I guess the gecko is nowhere to be seen… again."

"Where is he?!" asked Russell as he worried.

"I guess he is gone practicing his dance moves?" suggested Minka.

Penny Ling was afraid "Or maybe it was Sunil's magic trick!"

"Or maybe he was taken by another dumpster and was taken to the dump site again?" said Pepper jokingly.

Russell needed to hurry before the customers arrived, so he advanced "I think he's probably just practicing, like Minka said. Anyway, I will have two roles!"

"Two roles?!" asked all the pets.

"Well, yeah. I will be the judge at a court, and I will also be the detective of the play: Cyril McFlip!"

[Suddenly, in the pets' mind, the setting of the backstage magically turns into a creepy, dark, flooded city. All the pets are dressed up as old-fashioned workers, magicians and doctors. The female pets are wearing old-fashion dresses, singing the Cyril McFlip song

"Cyril McFlip, Cyril McFl-"]

"Not now!" Russell demanded as the song and the flooded city setting immediately vanishes, returning to the same backstage setting they were original in. "You can all sing it later."

"Aww, but I like singing it." Penny Ling sulked.

Russell just rolled his eyes slowly "Ok… you can finish it…"

[The pets cheered as the setting returns to the same flooded city and the song continues. Russell, who dresses up as Cyril McFlip joins in the song.

"Cyril McFlip, Cyril McFlip…

After the whole song finally finishes, the setting changes back to the backstage, showing reality.]

Russell was glad that he could continue now. "Now that we've done the song, I'll tell you why I'm playing two roles."

"Wait," Minka wondered "Why are you playing two roles?"

"I WAS going to tell you! It's because I want to quickly switch places between 2 characters when they're at the same scene at the same time. That way, I can practice my speed and endurance."

"Practice? For what?" Pepper asked and giggled, "An Olympic sprint?"

"No. But that IS possible."

Pepper and Zoe glanced at each other while holding in the laughter, but both couldn't help it and fell on the ground, bursting into laughter and rolling around!

Russell was quite embarrassed. "H-hey! It IS possible!"

Pepper got back and said "Come on, Russell! You're like, the second most unfit pet out of one of us!"

 _Second most unfit? Seriously? Who's the first?_ Russell tried to ignore that, and got to the point. "Anyway, I'll tell you the script of the play. But first, the outfits!"

He looked at the pets and himself, still noticing the chef outfits.

"Maybe we can start off by NOT wearing the chef outfits?"

The pets stripped out of their chef outfits and Russell handed them new costumes. Sunil wore a silver mask that looked like a bird with a large beak. Penny Ling wore a pink dress with bright glitter around the waist, Pepper got a jester costume "Now this is more like it!" She bounced in joy.

Minka got an old-fashioned artist hat and a blue shirt, Russell was deciding which costume he should wear first while Zoe get a red dress with a black fluffy scarf and a large flower as an ornament. She absolutely adored her outfit in a flash! Vinnie was supposed to get a stripy outfit with tap shoes, since he liked tap-dancing.

But since he wasn't here, Russell decided to leave it on the floor for him to collect. _Where is he?_ Russell thought as he scratched his head with his pen, all the pets wore their outfits and started rehearsing their roles.

Suddenly Vinnie falls from the ceiling into the ground! All the pets looked at him in surprise. He looked hurt.

"Where did you come from," questioned Minka, looking confused as she poked Vinnie on the ground "The sky? Or the ceiling?"

Russell realized that it was the magic trick that Sunil performed!

"Well, Russell? How does my magic trick compare to your motivation?" Sunil said and teased as he elbowed Russell. Russell just rolled his eyes tiredly. _It still wasn't as good as my motivation!_

Back in the kitchen, Blythe was STILL worrying.

Until…

The customers arrived!

 _Oh no… no no no!_

Blythe heard a few customers entered, but she then heard some arguing in the distance, and then silence. _I guess the Biskits aren't very good at customer service, aren't they?_

The customers entered the kitchen for some reason. However, they WERE NOT CUSTOMERS. In fact, it was Youngmee, Sue and Jasper!

"You came!" Blythe cheered in joy, with big relief!

"Yeah! We wouldn't let our best friend feel upset!" Youngmee said.

Sue agreed and said "That's right! But are you really going to work for THEM?"

"What do you mean?" Blythe asked, waiting for some clearance on the question.

"We encountered the Biskits twins in the entrance, and it took a LOT of convincing for them to let us in. They wouldn't believe that we wanted to help you."

 _Typical._

Jasper said, "Why did you decide to work for them anyway?"

"It's a looong story…" Blythe responded in embarrassment, remembering herself falling for the Biskits' puppy faces.

Youngmee handed Blythe a hand, and Blythe took her hand. Youngmee said in excitement "Let's win this like back in the baking contest!"

"Ok, let's do this together!" Blythe said. Youngmee, Sue and Jasper wore their chef outfits and held wooden spoons. Jasper wondered as he looked at himself "How did this restaurant get chef outfits in our sizes?"

What they did not notice, however, was that Brittany was eavesdropping them from outside the kitchen, listening through the closed door. She heard Youngmee said something about "best friends" and "not letting them be upset" and "doing it together"

 _We'll see about that…_


	6. For Blythe!

In the entrance of the restaurants, Whittany spotted Brittany arriving and saw her stopped, standing side by side with her. "Like, what were you doing?" Whittany asked, looking at her phone.

"Like, duh! What do you think? I was checking on Blythe." She responded as if Whittany was supposed to know.

"Huh?"

"Don't you remember what was the whole point of opening this restaurant?"

Whittany caught the memory and they both turned to each other and said, "To frame Blythe!"

Brittany said "Whittany! Give Blythe the special Biskit Mayo so she can use it. She will be in for, like, a real surprise in the future! Especially her pets…"

Whittany left to get this mayonnaise…

This Biskit mayonnaise was no ordinary mayonnaise. In fact, it was mayonnaise… that has expired 2 months ago! It also happened to be a different name brand, however it was relabeled with the name Biskits sauce, and the expiration date label has been scratched off and has been rewritten to a future date. So evil!

Whittany went to the storage room and took out the Biskits mayonnaise so she can hand it to Blythe.

Brittany reminded Whittany of the plan "We will, like, give this Mayo to her so that she can use it. And when we get complaints by customers who, like, barfed from our mayo. We'll say that the pets spread their germs and infected the customers. Ew. And then the patrol will, like, get rid of the pets and send them to the wild where they belong!"

Although this plan sounds like it's going too far, Whittany understood vaguely as usual, and walked towards the kitchen where the innocent chefs were.

Blythe, Youngmee, and Jasper were rearranging the ingredients and cleaning the silverware. Sue was just playing around with the blender BECAUSE SHE HAD NOTHING ELSE TO DO WITH HER LIFE!

Jasper noticed her being unhelpful, and realized that they weren't cooking yet.

"When Blythe said help," he reminded "This wasn't exactly what I had in mind."

"That's because the customers haven't arrived yet," Sue said as she looked up from the blender "We're just preparing."

"Right. I see YOU'RE also preparing, Sue."

Sue stops the blender with and lets out an awkward laugh, then gets back to reading the instructions with a straight face. _Awkward…_

Little did they know, Brittany approached outside the door, waiting for the right time.

 _Ha! Blythe is going to make the customers barf!_

She casually opened the door and was seen by Blythe and the others. _What does she want this time?_ Blythe wondered, and caught her eyes on the mayonnaise in Whittany's hand.

"Blythe," Whittany called with her usual Biskit face "We forgot to, like, give you this Mayo. So, like, here."

She held out mayo, waiting for Blythe to take it.

"Oh yeah?"

She took a moment to think about it… _Well, if she's giving it to me, then maybe it's good. They don't want to poison the customers._

"Ok then." Blythe answered.

She took it.

Blythe took the mayo off Whittany's hands. Whittany was surprised and couldn't help it, she had to snicker!

"Are you alright?" Blythe asked, she started feeling suspicious.

Whittany was almost caught and tried to act casual with a Biskit face "UH-YAH! I'M, LIKE, GOOD! SEE YA!"

She ran out the kitchen, trying to hold in the evil laughter! She half-closed the door, and peeked through from the outside. Blythe looked with a weird face. But turned and placed it on the counter.

Whittany was relieved like an anxious kid getting an A* in his final math test.

As soon as she finally calmed down, she decided to turn and walk out, leaving Blythe alone. She just had a thought… _Did Blythe just fall for that?_

Back in the kitchen, as Blythe was focusing on the normal mayo on the counter, she also asked herself… _What's her problem?_

Outside the kitchen, Whittany was walking back to the entrance where Brittany was. Brittany saw her and stopped using her phone as she turned to Whittany, asking excitedly "Well? Did you, like, give it to her?"

Whittany's was smiling, which gave a good sign. "Totally. I, like, gave it to her." Whittany said, waving her hand downwards once.

"Good" commented Brittany and continued using her phone. She thinks it's all going per plan. And they'd get away with. On the other hand, Whittany just sighed in great relief. At least her job was done!

Meanwhile in the backstage, the pets finished rehearsing and setting up the stage, and then got together in a small circle.

"So, everybody knows what to do?" asked Russell

The pets made positive responses and this was enough to tell that they were pumped up!

"It'll be easy!" predicted Pepper "I bet these FANCY customers don't even know what jokes are!"

"Just try to come up with jokes that won't hurt people emotionally, OK?" Zoe advised with concern.

"What?! Pfft! They can't even understand our language!" Pepper said jokingly. "Don't worry, it's in the bag!"

"Yes, but jokes aren't always verbal, you know?"

Pepper started to take it seriously. "They won't be offensive. Ok?!"

"Well knowing you, you might "involuntarily" overdo it."

 _There goes Zoe with her smart vocabulary again_ , thought Pepper with a growl.

Vinnie just couldn't help but jump in the conversation and asked "What does involunt… invol… inv… invo… What does that word mean?"

Zoe was glad to explain "Well, darling, it means when you unintentionally do something."

"Uh-huh… I still don't get it."

"Well… it means… when you didn't mean to do it?"

"…Uh-uh… Wait, what didn't I mean to do?"

"It means when you do something and you don't mean to do it, ok?!" She yells and points to Pepper as Zoe continues "Unfortunately it's hard for SOMEBODY to easily avoid that."

Pepper objected with a squinty face "Hey! I can very well avoid that!"

"Ok, ok! That's enough!" Russell commanded "Save the talking for AFTER the performance."

"But, there wouldn't be any point to argue after the play!" Pointed out Vinnie. For once, he had a good point.

"Well, that's a good thing!" Russell said with a smile. "So, who else is ready for the performance?"

Penny Ling was eager to do the play "Ooh! I just can't wait to show my latest dance."

"Don't forget me!" Vinnie reminded with his _cool guy_ tone.

Already, he starts to demonstrate and dances in front of the pets, who were quite impressed. But whatever happens to Vinnie always goes bad. ALWAYS.

As part of the routine, his left foot slides to the left, but instead, he slips on a mop and he goes zooming through the room along with the mop and crashed into the wall!

He lay for a few seconds, then lifts the mop that was on his head "I'm… Ok…"

 _It's so easy for Vinnie to get hurt somehow._ Pepper decided to approach Vinnie and help him out.

"I just hope Blythe is doing ok." Russell hoped.

"Indeed," Sunil agreed in his doctor outfit "I do feel bad for leaving Blythe in despair for the sake of entertaining the audiences."

"Yeah, but," Russell said, as if he's going to start another speech again "Don't think of it that way."

"Oh boy…" complained Vinnie, "here we go again with this motivation stuff."

Pepper on the other hand, slapped Vinnie with her rubber chicken again. "That's not helping." She said. _He deserved that._

"But I've heard this porcupine talk for hundreds of years!"

Another smack on the face with the rubber chicken, coming right up! _He did deserve that again!_

"I'm a hedgehog!" pointed out Russell frustratingly. _Why does everybody confuse me for a Porcupine?! Especially a close friend like Vinnie?!_ But Russell realized who he was talking about here. _Oh yeah… he's Vinnie…_

Afterwards, he starts straight away with his motivation stuff. So predictable.

"Look, Sunil's right. But even though we left Blythe for the sake of entertaining the audience, that's what she wants us to do. If the customers don't like the food enough, then our play is sure to help her!"

The pets thought of it how Russell did, and started making sounds that sounded like approval to him.

"I see what you mean and I do appreciate your confidence, darling," Zoe said "but, are you sure this play is going to work? Fancy people are known to be " _tough"_ audiences."

"They may be tough, but don't worry about that! This play is old-fashioned, just like this restaurant. If the fancy customers like the fancy restaurant, then they'll like this fancy play. The talent show that happens first will be considered a bonus warm up."

"Right. This might work!"

Russell handed out his small paw, waiting for the pets to place their paws on his.

"Do this for Blythe?" he asked.

All the pets glanced at one another with a confident smile and then they placed their small paws on Russell's paw. He begins to countdown.

"3… 2… 1…"

"FOR BLYTHE!" yelled the pets in hyper enthusiasm and with the most confidence they've had all week!

Penny Ling was quite confident, but realized that they weren't fully ready and asked with worry "What should we do about the set up?"

"Don't worry about that," Russell comforted "Me, you and Minka will handle that. With my smart calculation of the cardboard designs, Minka's artistic skills with painting the cardboard, and your surprising strength used to move around the cardboard, then it's all under control. Our settings will be the art gallery, the hospital, and the ball."

Russell, Minka and Penny Ling went off to make the cardboard stands, while the pets continued rehearsing for the main play.

Meanwhile, Blythe, Sue, Jasper and Youngmee have finally finished preparing.

"Thanks, guys!" Blythe thanked and let out a great, big sigh. "I couldn't have gone through the beginning of this without you."

"It's cool," Jasper said, "I was bored anyway."

Sue was also happy to help "No need to thank us."

"No problem!" Youngmee said "But how did you get pulled into this?"

Blythe's eyes opened widely, she didn't want to embarrass herself in front of her friends. But knowing Youngmee, she would get the secret out to her in a flash!

"Well?" asked Youngmee, already interrogating her like she's in a police station.

Blythe sighed. _Well, there was no way to hide it anyway._ She fiddles with her fingers, and faces her friends, but her eyes are looking away and admits with an awkward smile.

"I… may have… fell for their puppy eyes…"

Sue face palmed almost instantly. "Are you serious?!"

Blythe chuckled embarrassingly, then Jasper just had the urge to just comment "Not cool, I can't believe you put us in this mess-"

Sue elbowed Jasper in the hip, "Argh! I probably deserved that." he struggled to say in a high-pitched voice.

Youngmee looked serious a while ago, but just laughed as if she knew it. "That's typical of you Blythe, I even knew you were going to say that!"

Blythe could disbelieve that statement all she wants, but in the end, she did believe Youngmee. Youngmee's predictions are so accurate that she even predicted Blythe's reactions when she thought her dad had a date (which wasn't the case anyway), and it is kind of creepy.

"Well at least that's out of my system! But did any of you suspect Whittany and that weird Mayo she gave to me?"

"Oh yeah," Sue answered, "Why did she give to you at a time like that? It didn't look like she forgot to put it in the kitchen in the first place anyway."

Youngmee thought about that too "Yeah, shouldn't it have been in the fridge?"

Sue decided to look in the fridge. "What do you know? It's in the fridge too!"

"What the huh?"

There was another mayonnaise in the fridge! But it looked normal, and it had a familiar brand name. Sue took this mayonnaise and placed the normal mayo on the counter, next to the Biskit sauce. Sue, Blythe, Youngmee and Jasper were comparing it. Blythe was just confused and wondered what they were dealing with here.

"I don't get it." Blythe said doubtfully, scratching her head.

"Don't you get it?" Youngmee asked and grabbed Blythe by the shoulders, shaking her like mad! "I think they are setting us up!"

"Setting us up?" repeated Jasper. "But I'm not even sure what they are doing!"

Sue said what she believed "I think they're making us use their sauce instead of the normal one, which seems to be in the fridge. I have a bad feeling about this."

Blythe thought about it and somehow, it still didn't make sense. But she thought about it. _They can't poison their customers! Why would they want to do that?! I guess this sauce is good then._

"It can't be. I'll have to trust them."

"But why?!" asked Youngmee furiously, shaking her again by the shoulders. Blythe resisted and pushed her away. "Think about it!" she demanded with a concerned look. "It's their business, if there are any complaints from customers, then it's the Biskits' fault!"

But Blythe also had second thoughts. _What if they really are framing me? If they get complaints, then they could just say I poisoned them, right?_

Youngmee suggested "I don't know, Blythe. I'd just use the normal mayo, since we are familiar with the brand. Can't go wrong with that! We have never even used a Biskits sauce before, so who knows what'll happen?"

Blythe couldn't argue with that. So, she gave in with a calm smile "Yeah. I guess you're right. Thanks."

"No problem!" Youngmee said and hugged Blythe "The Biskits can never fool us!"

"Yeah!" Jasper agreed. Sue was nodding.

Youngmee wanted to know what Blythe would do now. "So… what will you do with the mayonnaise?"

"I guess I'll just chuck the Biskit mayonnaise in the bin and use the normal one. Like you said, nothing goes wrong with a familiar brand!"

Youngmee gladly agreed, and allowed Blythe to pick up the Biskit mayo and chucked it into the trash bin beside the door. She returned and thought about what the pets were up to this time. _The pets!_

Blythe almost forgot to tell her friends about the pets "Oh, and I almost forgot! The pets at Littlest Pet Shop are also performing an act here to entertain the audience."

Jasper was excited and gasped "Really?!" He realized he was in front of his friends, and quickly brushed off his shoulder and crossed his arms and looked away, trying to look like a cool dude "W-well, it's not like I'm interested or anything."

He looked so transparent and that's what made him… well… Jasper!

"I like circuses!" shared Sue.

"This isn't a circus," corrected Blythe and chuckled "It's an act, probably some sort of play."

"Oh! That's great!" Youngmee commented "I just happened to bring along Sugar Sprinkles and Buttercream along! I'll get them out of the sweet truck outside so they can join and watch the other pets do the act!"

"Great!" Blythe agreed cheerfully.

Youngmee left to bring her pets.

She arrived a minute later with a pet box, and placed it on the ground. Opening the box, Buttercream Sundae and Sugar Sprinkles got out and was surprised about where they were.

 _Woah. 2 pets in 1 pet box? That's the littlest pets to you!_

"Blythe!" yelled Buttercream as she jumped into Blythe's arms. She held Buttercream with her palm.

"How are you?!" asked Blythe, without considering her other friends with her. They must look surprised!

"I am feeling good! I've never been to a fancy restaurant before!" squeaked Sugar Sprinkles excitedly while stretching her legs and looked up to a Blythe. She was happy that they were here, and looked at Buttercream and asked the same question.

Buttercream said in a heartbeat "How am I? I'm feeling as tactically fantastic as a squeaky weaky mouse who found a pile of tasty pasty cheeses cheese cheese!"

"What?" Asked Blythe with her unsurprising confusion.

"What?" Repeated Buttercream. Suddenly her pupils turned tiny, and her bunny ears started wrapping around each other as she was rapidly stomping with her left foot, and then deeply sighs as her ears unwrap and her stomping slows down until it comes to a stop.

"Anyhoo…" She says, rolling her eyes and then looked at Blythe. It's her normal routine.

"I didn't know your friends know that you can talk to pets!"

Blythe realized that Jasper and Sue were looking with a typical " _Blythe-are-you-talking-to-pets?"_ face.

She quickly panicked and said in a rush "Who's a little kitty? Yes, you are! Yes, you are? Coot by coo!"

She was playing with Buttercream's cheeks while saying that.

Jasper and Sue just shrugged, but Buttercream looked concerned about Blythe and her awareness.

"Don't mean to spoil your grass or anything, but I'm a bunny!"

Blythe quickly turned and whisper to Buttercream and Sugar Sprinkles "I know. Guys, we'll talk later, ok? Now go to the backstage where your friends are. I heard they are performing an act for the customer. Maybe you can enjoy it too."

"An act? Awesome!" said Sugar Sprinkles.

 _Sugar Sprinkles ALWAYS likes to be optimistic in any situation. ALWAYS._

"Ok, let's go!" Said Buttercream as she hopped off Blythe's hands. Buttercream and Sugar sprinkles left the kitchen happily and went to the backstage.

They met Russell and the other pets. They all looked back in joyful surprise. "Buttercream! Sugar Sprinkles!" Russell cried "I didn't know you were coming!"

"Yeah," said Sugar Sprinkles "I wanted to check out the place. So fancy, isn't it?"

"Magnificently!" Zoe yipped!

Russell asked "I know, right? In fact, we were preparing for a play! You can watch it if you want."

Sugar Sprinkles has never been so excited "I wouldn't miss it for the world!"

Buttercream went ahead and said her own thing "Yeah, it would be exciting, just like that time when the Sweet truck got driven away and we were in danger danger and then Blythe saved our life before we went crash into a building building!"

"What?" asked Russell with expected confusion.

"What?" repeated Buttercream. Suddenly her pupils turned tiny, and her bunny ears started wrapping around each other as she was rapidly stomping with her left foot, and then deeply sighs as her ears unwrap and her stomping slows down until it comes to a stop.

"Anyhoo…" She says, rolling her eyes and then looked at the pets. It's her normal routine.

"I wanna watch it!"

"O-ok… we'll start when the customers come."

Say no more…

The bell of the door was heard in the distance. It was the customer this time! Blythe looked at her friends with confidence written all over their face.

"Guys," Blythe announced as she held the Mayo that was taken out from the fridge "Let's give the customers what they want!"

"Right!"

"Guys?"

"Yes?"

Putting her hands behind her head to show awkwardness, Blythe slowly asked, followed by a small chuckle "I sort of made the Biskits angry… And they're gonna make me work overtime. Care to join?"

…

"WHAT?!"

Meanwhile in the backstage, Russell and the other pets heard the bell of the first customer; he then held out his paw again, and the other pets gladly placed their paws on top. "One more time. 3… 2… 1…"

"FOR BLYTHE!"

"For Blythe?" Sugar Sprinkles repeated and wondered "Did I miss anything before I got here?"


	7. The early night

Slam! The shiny golden door was kicked open and slammed against the wall, and a bunch of customers and their pets barged in like a bunch of zombies!

But they were clumsy like usual; as soon as they barged in and entered, they raced towards the Biskits. But… they all tripped over each other's feet and all fell onto each other, landing right in front of the Biskit twins who were waiting for the customers to just book their tables already. All their pets jumped on top of them for the fun of it! Aww…

The Biskits were still waiting. Well, at least Whittany was waiting. Brittany was just texting. The customers looked up at the astonishing paintings and the tables behind the Biskits. Man, the service hasn't started yet and Whittany couldn't even stand it already!

She took a deep breath…

"UH-HUM!" She coughed loudly, signaling for some attention! The customers and pets instantly got up and stood firmly like soldiers. These customers sure felt afraid, but these are the Biskit twins, so it was clearly no surprise. Except for one small, pink poodle who just growled at Whittany. She wasn't as scary looking as Zoe when she's mad.

 _Like, eww_.

Whittany nudged Brittany, who then realized the customers were here and felt startled. She hid her phone in a flash.

"Like, thanks for coming," Brittany started in her flat, unamused, uninterested tone, "or, whatever…"

"Like, Yeah," Whittany continued enthusiastically "Welcome to our grand opening, where you will, like, enjoy it."

Brittany made an announcement in her flat, unamused, uninterested tone. She doesn't care about exciting the customers, does she? "For tonight only, to celebrate the grand opening, we will have, like…"

Brittany took a deep breath and gulped then continued "…pets… To entertain you with their, like, act."

The customers looked interested, and the pets were more excited. Expect for Brittany who looked like she was about to be sick.

 _Yuck… I said "pets" … Like, barf._

Whittany just rolled her eyes. But she could relate.

"And," Brittany finished with an evil face "Enjoy your food…"

Saying that made the Biskit twins laugh evilly. _The Biskits thought that Blythe would use their special mayonnaise sauce and poison the customers. So ironic, since Blythe chucked that mayonnaise in the bin. She wouldn't fall for that._

The customers and pets heard the Biskits laughter, and their volume slowly accelerated, which seemed pretty bone-chilling to the customers and their pets. So, they looked afraid with eyes wide open as they quickly tiptoed (in tiny steps) past the laughing Biskits and sat down on the tables. The pets joined them and sat on the chairs as well, trying to look like gentlemen. Adorable!

The Biskits finally stopped laughing, so Brittany decided to remind her sister about the plan "Remember, collect the orders from the pets and give them to Blythe. She will, like, add the special mayo. And that will ruin her life!"

 _This is too exciting!_ "So, what will you do, Whittany?"

"I will, like, stay here. In case more customers come, so they can book their tables."

"Ok. I'll go and take the orders. Just letting you know."

"That's what I told you to do!"

She left Whittany. Unfortunately for Whittany, she had just realized that the previous customers already took their tables, without booking them in with her. With eyes open wide, she was quite surprised.

 _Like, wow._ She thought as she dropped her pen and clipboard. _This table booking job is so much harder than I thought._ She just shrugged and took out her phone again. Nothing else to do here!

All the customers looked around in awe as they saw a lot of portraits from the comfort of their seats. They saw legendary painting of the great boat, paintings of magical dragons and Knights. There's even a Mona Lisa painting! This was probably enough for the customers to review this restaurant positively without even trying out the food. Good presentation often leads to satisfactory results, right? Any who, the customers decided to look at the big stage that's in front of them. Them and the pets can't resist fiddling with the skirt of the tablecloth and tapping on the tables as they excitedly wonder what kind of acts the pets are going to perform!

Through the curtains, Russell is peeking through. He's never seen that many people, nor did he even consider it. "Wow. It's a full house!"

The pets behind him were excited and squeezed in with Russell to peek through the curtains too. A smile was put on every face.

"Ha! This is so exciting!" Pepper said.

Buttercream added "Yeah! This is going to be sweetingly sweet!"

"Yeah! I can't wait to try out the food!" said Vinnie "Oh, wait… we're not customers."

"Yes. And it's all thanks to those Biskits!" barked Zoe, and looked down, whimpering. "All I wanted was to try something luxurious occasionally."

Pepper absolutely hated seeing Zoe sad… even if it was for good., She put her arm around Zoe; comforting each other is what best friends do.

"Come one, Zoe. You've always wanted to be a famous dog! Not that you aren't already. If you think about it, this is a great start! So, tell me: Would you rather try some fancy food, or be a star in this play and be praised by all the customers?!"

Zoe's smile grew back swiftly. "You're right! I didn't think about that."

"And we might still have a chance to try out some of the food."

The pets were eager to do the show already! Sugar Sprinkles peeked through the curtains to find customers in quietness, they seemed to be looking in different directions. _Maybe they're bored._ "I'm not really sure, but, maybe it's your time to shine."

Russell walked over and slightly pulled the curtains open to peek through. He saw the customers on their tables; each customer was looking at their menu. "I think they are going to order their meals first."

Sunil agreed casually "Yes, and then we will start the amazing magical act!"

"That's the spirit!"

The pets were excited, even Buttercream and Sugar Sprinkles! Buttercream though was too excited! She couldn't wait to see their pet pals on the theatre. However, the thought of the audience reminded all the pets of Blythe, which sucked the excitement out of them and inflated them with concern.

"Guys," Russell called "Remember? For Blythe?"

That revived the joy inside the pets!

Meanwhile, Brittany was collecting the orders. She came across a man who called her over and said "Excuse me? I would like to order a Blanquette de Veau please."

"Blanquette de Veau?" she repeated "Like, ok. That'll be $87"

She held her hand out, signaling for the cash.

"Pay it now?"

"I think so."

"Can't I pay after I eat?"

"Ugh… no. This is, like, fancy food. Our chefs work hard on making fancy food! So, in case there is something wrong with it, it's not, like, refundable!"

The man already wasn't enjoying his stay, but decided to just let it be and handed the cash.

"Thank you. As a freebie, you will get, like, a homemade frozen fruit salad after the meal as a dessert."

"But… It says in the menu that the homemade frozen fruit salad is part of the $87."

"Oh… well, then you'll get an extra plate or whatever."

Brittany noted the order in her notepad and made her way to the chefs in the kitchen to hand them the note. Blythe read it.

"Blanquette de Veau?!" Blythe read out in shock "I don't even know what that is!"

Brittany was quite surprised "What?!"

"I DID say that I don't have any chef experience!"

"No, you did not!"

"Did too!"

"Did not!"

"Did too!"

"Did not!"

"Did too!"

"Did not!"

"Did too!"

"Did not!"

"Did too!"

"Did not! Quiet! Earlier, you said you had no experience in, like, making lasagna and people shaped cakes!"

"So?!"

"So, you DID NOT say you had no chef experience, duh!"

 _Well she did have a point._

"Fine. I'll try…"

Brittany's smile regenerated "Good! You can get help from the cook book."

She left while Sue was looking in the cook book. Blythe already felt devastated and the night has just started! Youngmee decided to cheer her up. "Don't worry! It's not like things will get worse."

Sue looked up from the cook book, looking concerned as she said, "Except the fact that this meal isn't even in the cook book."

"So, we can't make it?!" Jasper asked.

 _You've got to be kidding!_


	8. It had a different purpose…

Blythe was leaning on one hand and constantly tapping on the table with her fingers of the other hand. Nothing was on her mind but doubt; she was stressed, depressed and, worst of all, seriously freaking out! The Biskits just handed Blythe a cook book, with absolutely no mentioning of this meal she was meant to cook.

"This is ridiculous!" she complained, "Why would a restaurant even have a meal that isn't featured in this cook book?!"

Jasper pointed out "Because it isn't the restaurant's cook book, duh!"

Sue was annoyed at him more than ever. She whacked the back of Jasper's head with the frying pan she held in her hand!

WHAM!

"How many times do I have to tell you to stop being a jerk?!" She growled.

"Agh! That- hurt!"

Jasper was trying to sooth the pain by rubbing the back of his head. She ignored his whining about the throbbing pain in his head, and turned to Blythe to try to get her to regain confidence. "There's got to be another way to find out how make this meal, Blythe."

 _Another way, huh? Well, there's a cook book. And the internet._

It hit her like lightning!

 _Oh my gosh, she's right!_ Blythe just had the coolest idea ever! Well every idea she had was thought to be the coolest. She didn't hesitate to whip out her phone, and confidently search online for the cooking instructions on the web. "You're right, Sue! I can find it on my phone!"

"See?" Sue showed Jasper "That's what you should do when someone's lost hope!"

Jasper just rolled his eyes and tried to look in the oven, but it was as dark as a bat cave! While tinkering with it, he decides to stick his head in. Absolutely nothing wrong with that! Right? After a few minutes of searching, Blythe hit the jackpot!

She held her phone up in the air, looking like a hero in a movie poster, and announcing "Bingo! The cooking guide to making the Blanquette de Veau!"

"Alright! Good job!"

"Oh, you found it?!" Jasper said while inside the oven, but saying that made him lose concentration on the tinkering and suddenly, the oven lets out with a loud sound and releases black smoke! A few seconds later, he brought out his head and it had black dirt covered all over his face. "I'm ok."

His friends just laughed at him. He sighed and joined in the laughter.

As soon as Blythe stopped laughing and focused at the cooking guide on her phone, her hope was crushed tremendously.

"Uh-oh…" she gulped. Youngmee looked from behind, having a bad feeling about this. "Oh no, what is it this time?"

"After finding only cooking instruction about this meal, it's in French!"

Well it was worth a try. The customers are still waiting for their food so that they can enjoy it as well as watch the act, which will start after the food is served.

Meanwhile in the backstage, the pets are doing final rehearses as a group. Except for Buttercream and Sugar Sprinkles, who are relaxing on a big, pink pillow together, watching the pets redo their performances and outdo their bloopers.

"You know," Sugar Sprinkles mentioned, "They are working so hard right now. They seem to be serious about it too. This play is going to be awesome."

Buttercream agreed with her best friend as always "Uh-huh! This will be the best!"

Sugar Sprinkles laughed with her best friend and reminded "Yeah! It will be like the time we all drove on the Sweet Delights truck: unforgettable!"

Russell was ticking things off his checklist happily and had such high opinions on his play so far. _This will be a success! My characters will be original, and so will the plot. Just thinking about the script makes the play exciting! I can't wait for Blythe to watch this play._ _Oh, wait… She's not going to watch it because she's going to be busy. Oh well, at least the customers will like the play. The script and the speech will leave them speechless and-_

The checklist was dropped on the ground. He twitched and his eyes were as widened as ever.

 _I just remembered. They… can't understand us! And the play relies on the lines! The script will be a disaster!_

Putting his hand under his chin and thinking, he walked in circles, thinking about how to break the news to the pets. There can't possibly be any other solution. Nearby, he notices Sunil with his hand under his chin and walking in circles as well.

Russell chose to stop, walk towards him, and set things straight. "OK. What's the problem now, Sunil?"

"Well… I'm still deciding on what major trick I should come up with for my act. Right now, I am considering the trick where I can create colorful smoke, but I am sure there is a better trick. What about you?" He replied worryingly as usual.

"Now that you are asking and now that I'm thinking about it, what if this play doesn't turn out to be successful?"

"What are you suggesting, Russell?"

In a flash, Russell run up to his friend and shook him by the shoulders and got to the point.

"I JUST REALIZED THE AUDIENCE CAN'T UNDERSTAND US!"

He let go and wrapped his arms around himself, trying to calm down. _The audience won't even know what's going on! They'll be confused, uninterested, and bored! The story fully relies on the lines in the script!_

"Now, now," Sunil replied calmly as he patted Russell's shoulder, "It doesn't have to be just words. You know those comedy television shows we watch?"

"Yes?"

"They don't talk. They just use funny sound effects and we still know what's going on."

"I guess you're right. But it will still be unwelcome news to the others when they realize how silly I am because the problem didn't come to my head in the first place. In that case, we'll have to admit it, OK Sunil?"

"Ok." Sunil said calmly, praising himself for making his friend see the brighter side, but just comprehended what Russell just said. "Wait. Did you say WE?!"

"Come on, Sunil! Only you know and I will need some backup."

 _Great._ Sunil thought. _Another problem to worry about._ But he just couldn't refuse to help a friend; he's never refused without feeling guilty about it.

"OK, fine. If you say so."

"Thanks."

In the kitchen, Blythe was walking around too. She couldn't do this. She just had to give up and let the Biskits humiliate her. That would've been the easier option. She looked back at the note that Brittany gave to her. It says _Blanquette de Veau, and 2 frozen fruit salads for dessert._

Blythe was at least feeling better after reading the dessert, "You know, we can at least make the frozen fruit salads"

"I guess." Youngmee agreed.

Sue asked "OK. You ready, Jasper?"

"I would've been, until you hit me with that pan!" Jasper said, still being mad at her.

"What was that?!"

"-NOTHING! I'M READY!"

"Good."

They saved the Blanquette de Veau meal for later, got out the ingredients needed for frozen fruit salads and g0t right to it. Note that the salad has mayonnaise as the ingredient. Blythe used the good mayonnaise from the fridge, NOT the Biskits' Mayo. Just before then, Brittany comes in, with a lot of notes, containing orders she got from the customers and places them on the counter.

She asked, "You don't mind making, like… 40 fruit salads too, do you?"

"40?!" Blythe repeated hesitantly, "How did you get 40?!"

"Thing is, I said that every meal had a free frozen fruit salad as a dessert. And customers were like, "Oh no, that's part of the price too". So, I was like "Ok, have another free frozen fruit." And now you need to, like, make 40 of them."

 _So… you took 20 orders?_

She left. Blythe wasn't prepared to give up yet though! 40 fruit salads are at least easier to make than a Blanquette de Veau. "Come one guys! It's only for tonight."

If you can make 1, then you can make 40… if you have enough ingredients for 40.

In the backstage, Russell and Sunil called all the pets over, interrupting their rehearsal. They all stood in front of and paid attention to Russell and Sunil, who looked like they had an announcement to make. Which they did; to tell them that the play was ruined just because of the audience's silly inability to communicate with animals. Looking at the pets crushed Russell's confidence to tell them. They would feel devastated!

Russell coughed, signaling for Sunil to start the announcement instead. However, Sunil was just sweating, and it was caused just by looking at the pets. They would've also looked devastated to him. He didn't want to let the pets down, and he most certainly didn't want to take the blame for it. He couldn't think, and just did what he does best: being a coward.

He points at Russell and shouts "HE WILL ANNOUNCE IT! I HAVE NOTHING TO DO WITH IT! IT'S TOO MUCH TO HANDLE!"

"SUNIL!" Russell called!

"AH! I'M SORRY!"

Sunil sprinted behind the pets and protected himself behind Pepper's tail, as if Russell was going to strangle him. Russell DID consider it, but thought _what's the point?_ Sighing was better instead.

"Guys," he started as he took a breath, "I'm afraid we might have to… alter the play."

"Alter it?!" Vinnie repeated with shock, but became confused as he scratched his head "Um… What does that mean?"

Zoe just rolled her eyes, and asked Russell in worry "Why are you changing the play, darling? It looks good to me. Um- I mean, looks good to US."

The pets noticed her mistake and glanced at her to embarrass her.

"Oh, so that's what it means!" Vinnie said aloud as if he was the greatest genius in existence. The pets nodded and tried to encourage him.

"Seriously?" Zoe said in annoyance.

Russell explained "Um, well… long story short, I realized the audience wouldn't understand our lines since we're, you know, pets."

"Right," Pepper understood "Now tell us the story, short story long."

 _Short story long? Oh, right! The uncut version of the story._

Russell said "Well… Before we knew that Blythe was going to take us to the restaurant, I was already planning on the play."

"How did you plan the play when you didn't know you were going to do it here?" Minka asked. "Unless… you can travel through time!"

"No, Minka. I cannot travel through time."

"You don't know that! In the future, you may have found out that you know how to travel through time! And then you decided to travel to a time before you found out you could travel through time, but then you wouldn't know you could travel through time because it was the time before you found out! Maybe you found out and used it to travel to this time right now, and you're probably not even knowing it right now!"

"W-what?! Any who, I told you I can't travel through time!"

Minka nodded in understanding and allowed Russel to continue. _But… Minka did have a good point._ Russell was quite surprised at Minka's theory! But now wasn't the right time to consider it. He shook his head and tried to focus on the main purpose of this conversation.

"Anyway" Russell continued, "I was planning it, because it was going to be a present. In a few weeks, it will be Blythe's birthday."

The pets remembered and all said together "Oh! Blythe's birthday!"

"That's right, and this play was going to be for Blythe's birthday. Like, a gift. I just hoped she likes classic plays. I mean, who doesn't, right? But now, I'm doing it here because I thought that this play would entertain the customers, and the Biskits forced-hired us in such a short notice. So, I thought I could use this play instead. It's unfinished, but it would do. But now I realized that this play was made for Blythe in the first place, so I didn't take notice that only she understands the lines because she can communicate with us. The audience can't, and the play depends on the lines. So, it's pointless."

He felt absolutely distressed after clarifying it.

"Come on, Russell," Sugar Sprinkles said with a sparkling smile as always, "You don't think the audience will hate it just because they can't understand us, can you? That's so silly! You guys can just move around and make noises. I bet the audience will understand."

"Yeah!" Penny Ling approved.

 _That's what Sunil said earlier! Maybe this play can work without even changing it. Sometimes I don't even think of the easiest solutions._

"Do you really think so?!"

The pets all agreed! Russell placed his hand under his chin, rethinking the situation and calculating the outcome: PERFECT!

Russell ordered excitedly "Ok! No one changes the play; we'll play it how it is meant to play! I guess I'll just have to think of another present for her birthday…"

Blythe and her friends have prepared a lot of frozen fruit salads so far, by using the good mayonnaise that they took from the fridge instead of the Biskits' special Mayo. But they didn't finish producing 5 of them. Why didn't they finish 5 of them? Blythe looked at them and realized that they didn't have Mayo on them. Not a problem! Blythe went to get the mayonnaise and tried to add the mayonnaise to the remaining salads.

"What?!" Blythe shook the bottle upside down; nothing came out. She then decided to peek inside the bottle; it was out of mayo!

"We can go get some more" suggested Jasper calmly. Finally, a good suggestion from him!

"Ok," Blythe said. "But we'll have to persuade the Biskits to let us out. I know how hard it was for you guys to get in." Blythe was feeling better, but it wasn't decent enough to let out all her stress, and right before she could go to the Biskits, there was an unforeseen event.

Ring! Ring!

Blythe's phone was drumming. Is this a sign of hope?! She sure wished so. Only one way to find out!

She rapidly picked up the phone and checked who was calling. The person who's calling her is…

Mrs. Twombly?!

She knew why she was calling. _OMG!_ She thought. _I forgot to tell her I brought the pets with me to the restaurant. She must be worried sick! But maybe… she can help!_

Hopefully she could assist Blythe somehow, she just needs to ask her. _Doesn't sound hard, right?_ But it would be tough, especially when she hears that Blythe's ACCIDENTALLY working in the Biskits' restaurant. She'd never help the Biskits!

Mrs. Twombly is tough rivals with the Biskits at the Largest Ever Pet Shop; she'd do anything to beat them in any competition, even by collecting more doorknobs than Fisher Biskit. Would she help someone who's working in a Biskits facility? She answered the call, crossed her fingers, and said happily "Hello, Mrs. Twombly."

It WAS Mrs. Twombly! Blythe heard Mrs. Twombly talk in her cheerful voice.

"Hello, Blythe. How are you?"

"I'm doing good… I think."

"How are the pets?"

"Oh! They're doing great! … I hope."

"OK good! But where are you? I haven't seen you for hours."

"Oh, well we were going to a restaurant that just opened today around the corner."

"That sounds wonderful! But I haven't heard of a new restaurant opening."

"IKR!"

"Erm…"

"It means "I know right"."

"Oh, I'll never be like you kids nowadays."

"Yeah…"

Mrs. Twombly noticed Blythe's sigh. She knew Blythe well enough to know what that means.

"Are you feeling down, darling? What's the matter?"

"Well…" It was time. Blythe could only explain as fast as she could in one breath… so she did. And she said in one quick breath…

…

"I TOOK THE PETS TO THE RESTAURANT AND THEN I SAW THE BISKITS WHO WERE RUNNING THE PLACE AND THEY FORCED ME TO WORK WITH THEM WHEN ALL I REALLY WANTED TO DO WAS TRY OUT THE FOOD AND THEY SAID IF I DON'T WORK THEN I WILL BE ETERNALLY HUMILIATED AND I WAS LIKE OK BUT IT WAS TOO STRESSFUL AND THE PETS HELPED AND THEY SAID THEY'D PERFORM AN ACT FOR THE AUDIENCE AND I WAS LIKE THANK YOU AND THEN I CALLED MY FRIENDS TO COME OVER AND THEY CAME OVER AND TRIED TO HELP ME WHEN THE BISKIT TWINS GIVE ME A STUPID COOK BOOK AND THEY TOLD ME TO LIKE MAKE THIS MEAL CALLED BLANQUETTE DE VEAU BUT I DON'T EVEN KNOW WHAT IT IS SO I DECIDED TO MAKE THE DESSERTS ONLY BUT I'M MISSING ONE INGREDIENT AND YOU CALLED AND I'M TELLING YOU THIS!"

Wow… try saying all THAT in one quick breath! Blythe was desperate for air and gasped over the phone.

"Blythe."

"…yes?"

"I didn't catch any of that. Please go again, just a bit slower?"

Blythe explained the whole story on the phone, without mentioning the part when the pets talked to her. It almost took ages.

"Oh dear! That is bad!"

"Yeah. So, can you help? Are you familiar with the meal?"

"I have a cook book around the pet shop, let me go get it and I'll let you know."

Blythe understood and hung up to wait for her. _Things are going great!_ Blythe though. _Let's just hope it stays that way._


	9. Just in case

Things were probably going bad for the girls - and Jasper - but at least Blythe was feeling better than usual now. Who knows, Mrs. Twombly may or may not be able to find the book, but having such confidence somehow makes Blythe feel better. And that's all that mattered, so she kept the confidence. Now, all she must do is to encourage the Biskits to let them leave the restaurant to purchase more mayonnaise from the grocery store. The good mayo has run out, and the Biskits mayo is currently in the bin, thanks to Blythe's friends. Good! Blythe and her friends removed their chef clothes and hats, then they approached the Biskits who were standing by the entrance again, using their phones. _What are they doing? Aren't they supposed to be doing their job?_

"Whittany, Brittany?" Blythe called, "What are you doing?"

The Biskits got startled and panicked. They ran into each other, bumping into each other and falling on the ground. They quickly got up, hiding their phones! Brittany hesitated "Blythe?! What do you want now?"

"I want to know what you're doing here. Aren't you supposed to be booking tables and taking orders? Whittany?"

"I just finished booking the tables." Whittany confirmed. But, she didn't book the tables, the customers just passed her without booking and sat wherever they pleased.

"Like, yeah," Brittany said, "And I finished taking the orders. Everybody wanted 2 frozen fruit salads with their meals. I forgot why. Are they, like, frozen fruit salad fans or something?"

 _There's more other meals?! I hope Mrs. Twombly's book has all the meals in them._

"Let me guess, it's because you said there was a free frozen fruit salad with the meal. And there was also one that came with the cost of the meal, so each meal now has 2 frozen fruit salads, and now I have to make 2 for each customer, resulting in 40 in total?"

 _According to my calculations… that means 20 customers are in this restaurant!_

"Like, yeah! How did you know?"

"You told me about an hour ago!"

 _Speaking of hour, what time is it now?_ Blythe checked her phone. "It's 8:13 pm already?! The customers were here since 6 pm! I'm afraid you'll get some pretty bad reviews, guys."

 _At least the Biskits will. Not me. Literally, I'm working against my own free will over here! So technically, that makes me a customer, right?_

"Don't worry about that," Whittany said "We managed to get them to stay for a few more hours and give good reviews afterwards."

"How?"

"We, like, paid them."

"Bribery? How much are you bribing?"

"$20 each."

Blythe just wanted to slap her silly after hearing that. But as usual… _it is no surprise at all. They ARE the richest and most spoiled girls in the entire world._

"So, why are you here, anyway, Blythe?" Brittany demanded, staring, "Are you planning to, like, leave us?!"

"No, don't be ridiculous! If only that was possible though, then I'd be begging my eyes out right now. Anyway, we need to go out and buy more mayo sauce because we're out of it." Blythe said, followed by a weak laugh.

Whittany and Brittany glanced at each other. They were thinking about the mayo: the special Biskits mayo. _Did, she, like, use it?_ The Biskits thought Blythe already used to poisonous mayonnaise, and couldn't help illuminating the fact, by letting out a snigger.

"What's so funny?" threatened Sue. This somehow also scared Jasper and gave him the chills. He went behind Youngmee for protection, who just rolled her eyes.

"Oh, nothing." Whittany said, stopping the snigger. "Ok, fine. You can go and buy more mayo, or, whatever."

The Biskits were ok with them buying any kind of mayo, because they thought they already used the poisonous mayo. So, there was no point of restricting. But little did they know; Blythe has used the good mayonnaise from the fridge! So, Blythe and her friends are on the safe side so far. Hah, jokes on you, Biskits!

Blythe and her friends gladly left the restaurant and travelled to the farthest convenient store possible, to restock on mayonnaise.

While this was happening, Russell was still checking boxes on his checklist in the backstage. The other pets are just hanging out with each other as they all sat together on a big, pink pillow. Russell tried to be calm and confident, but something just keeps impacting his mind and distracts him from his focus on the play: Blythe.

 _I know Blythe is doing ok. But… What I don't get is why? Why is she working for the Biskits? Why did she get a text message about it? Why was she told that she can bring the pets if she wants? The Biskits would never want Blythe to help them! Unless…_

 _…_

 _…_ _I think she's being set up!_

Russell called the pets over again. This time, he's facing the group alone, while Sunil was also part of the crowd now.

"What's wrong?" Penny Ling asked. "Is something bothering you?"

"Is it about the act again?" asked Vinnie.

Russell said, "I have a theory that somehow makes sense to me."

"If it makes sense to you, then it won't make sense to us. You're too smart and complicated." Pepper commented while sniggering. However, Russell easily took it as a compliment. Vinnie, on the other hand, repeated the question "Is it about the act again?"

"I don't think so." Pepper said, patting Vinnie.

"Ooh! Is it a theory about time travel?!" asked Minka, who was swinging excitedly from one of the curtain ropes above. Russell answered with a smile "No, Minka." He knew she'd ask the same question again in a few hours. "It's about the Biskits."

In a flash, all the pets' smiles were wiped off and replaced with slight anger. They all hated the Biskits. They had anger written all over them, except for Sugar Sprinkles, who was still gleaming with a soft, warm smile.

But deep inside, her rage was just as equivalent to the others. Don't underestimate Sugar Sprinkles!

"Well, Blythe is working for the Biskits," Zoe reminded worryingly, "So I think I have a bad feeling about what you're going to say."

"That's fine." Russell said. "It's just about them asking Blythe to work with them. Well, more like FORCING her. If that's the case, then what if she's being set up? Doesn't it sound weird?"

The pets thought about it. It did start making sense, the more they considered it.

"How can you be sure of that?" Sunil asked worryingly.

"I'm not. Which is why I'm going to go to the kitchen to find out. And I'm taking you with me to the kitchen, so we can find any evidence, clues, or even booby traps."

"Me?! Again?!" Sunil said, clutching his wand.

Pepper just laughed at what he said, "Ha! He said booby!"

Vinnie said, "I don't get it."

"I don't know, Russell." Sunil said anxiously. "Being alone in a wide area brings fear to me. It just doesn't feel right. Especially when all you're responsible for all your actions as they will bring an extremely shocking future to us."

"Please?" Russell begged with beaming huge eyes. It only worked on humans though, and Sunil wasn't convinced. So, Sunil crossed his arms and looked away. Nice try, Russell.

"Can I come too?" Penny Ling asked. "I've been practicing my dance routine too much, and now I'm bored, and hungry. But I can still help you. Can I come? Please?"

Even Penny Ling was looking at Russell with gigantic pupils to convince him. It may have worked on humans, but Penny Ling's enormous pupils worked on Russell as well. Aww… But Russell thought Penny Ling wanted to do something else rather than JUST help. He knew she wanted to come with him just so that she can eat all the treats in the kitchen. However, it could help too as they may find more clues that way, with Penny Ling's amazing panda senses as well as having her search every cupboard for treats. "Ok, you can come too." Russell approved with a smile.

"Yay, thank you so much, Russy!" she cheered as she approached Russell with arms out and hugged him tightly! Aww… She made him smile.

"What about you, Sunil?" Russell asked for confirmation.

Sighing, Sunil knew he'd end up helping, so he eventually agreed to tag along. "Fine."

"And NO bailing out this time, ok?"

"Yes, yes. I will try. Just don't place any more pressure on me."

The 3 critters left to the kitchen while the rest were just hanging out.

Blythe and her friends are at the convent store, looking for mayo. They are in the sauce section, checking out the huge selection of mayonnaise. You could buy all of it at once and it would last you a lifetime! Unfortunately, they were all room temperature, not refrigerated. This wasn't a good thing, especially for the fact that they'd had to be used on the salad immediately after purchase. They need to be cold by then, and there's no time to refrigerate it at the restaurant! She saw a worker pass by and thought this was the right opportunity to ask with a polite smile. This is customer service after all. "Excuse me. Do you have any refrigerated mayo?"

"No." The worker walked away.

"Oh, um, ok." _Jeez, this store has the same customer service as the Biskits. I mean, at least they are honest. But still, they make you feel bad for asking a question in the first place. It sounds patronizing somehow. Great. Now how will I get more mayo?_

No time to think about that, because her phone was ringing again. It is Mrs. Twombly again! She picked up, waiting for the answer to whether she found the cook book. Mrs. Twombly sounded excited, which was certainly a good sign!

"You'll never guess what! I've found the cook book, Blythe! And luckily for us, it's an international cook book, so it has the meal you're looking for! Blanquette de Veau, at page 81."

 _Result!_ "Oh my gosh! Thank you so much! I need it!"

"Hold your horses, Blythe. I'll come to the restaurant and help too."

 _What the huh?!_

"You want to help?!"

"Yep! Even if it helps the Biskits too… But that's because you're in trouble too, so that's all that matters."

"Thanks, you're a total lifesaver, Mrs. Twombly!"

"Don't mention it! You did save the Pet Shop from closing several times, so I'm just returning the favor. Where is this restaurant?"

"Around the corner of Littlest Pet Shop, it's left and true until the end of the small road where the junction is."

"Ok, got it. I'll be there in a few minutes."

She hung up. _A few minutes? I didn't get the mayo for the frozen fruit salad yet… Oh well, this Blanquette de Veau is clearly a lot more important than its dessert. So, it's better to just leave instead._

"Ok, guys! Mrs. Twombly has a cook book that covers worldwide meals, including Blanquette de Veau!"

"Yes! Excellent job, Blythe!" Youngmee cheered and squealed. She squealed too loud, that every other customer in the shop heard them. How embarrassing! The faces of the customers staring in worry at the group gave shivers to them. A few seconds later, they eventually returned to doing their business as if nothing happened. Awkward…

Blythe whispered "Not too loud, Youngmee, but thanks. Now let's get out of here and meet Mrs. Twombly in the restaurant."

"Ok." She replied. They left the convenient store to return to the restaurant. For once, all the stress has been released!


	10. That's odd…

The customers, who are currently at their table, are still waiting for their meals, especially meals that Blythe doesn't know how to make, and each of the customers want two frozen fruit salads. That makes 40 in total! Luckily, Mrs. Twombly is on her way to the restaurant so she can help!

Unfortunately, she's stuck in traffic…

Some of the customers check their watches and huff, but they are only waiting because they are thinking about the bribery that the Biskits committed: $10 from the girls!

Meanwhile, Blythe and her friends are on their way back to the restaurant from the grocery store. However, they spot a pizza restaurant on their left. It appears to be holding up an exclusive offer shown on their window, which caught the full attention of Jasper in a flash.

"Oh man!" Jasper said excitedly, "It's a buy one, get one free offer! I'm going to buy the largest pepperoni pizza, and get the same biggest pizza for free!" His friends just laughed at his reaction, but he was being serious. "Seriously? Are we just gonna forget about this offer?"

It was quite a difficult decision: pizza place, or back to the Biskits? Any normal person would be thoughtful and pick the pizza place rather than to the Biskits! Blythe was feeling positive though, and she was also hungry from making all those frozen fruit salads. _Maybe a few minutes in the pizza place won't hurt_. She eventually approved and so did her friends, because they were also tired and starving. "Ok. But we'll need to have a takeaway."

"That's fine. Free large pizza, here I come!"

"And we'll ALL share the pizzas, ok?" Youngmee said jokingly.

There goes Jasper's dreams. "Aww…"

Well there goes the girls - and Jasper - into the pizza place to order a takeaway meal.

Creak… the kitchen door gradually opens back in the restaurant; it's Russell, Sunil, and Penny Ling. Russell wanted to make sure Blythe was alright and there wasn't anything wrong with the kitchen. Sunil wanted to support his friend and not BAIL OUT this time! And Penny Ling… well, she DID want to help, but she mostly only wanted to eat the snacks in the kitchen. Russell knew she only wanted the snacks, but he decided to take Penny Ling along anyway, in case she'd search the cupboards for snacks and they just happen to find something of interest. AND because he couldn't resist saying "No" to her. No one could, especially with her massive eyes.

The critters peeked around; no one was in the kitchen.

"…Russell?" Sunil asked as he stood behind him "Maybe it's not such a clever idea anymore." Oh dear, he's chickening out!

"What? How could you say that?" Russell asked confidently.

"What if WE do something wrong?"

"Like?"

"Oh, I don't know… sneezing into the food and poisoning the customers, accidentally dropping the plates and smashing them, accidentally bleaching the-"

"-Ok I get it! We'll make sure that doesn't happen. Right, Penny Ling?"

…

"Penny Ling?"

They looked back, and she wasn't there. She vanished?! _Where is she?!_ Russell looked around, and finally located Penny Ling; she's already on one of the cupboards on the wall, eating plain sponge cake that was stored in there. She looked back and returned an awkward chuckle. _How predictable, but cute._

"Well, she's already to it." Russell said, thinking things are already per plan, then turned to his other friend. "Sunil, go check the sinks, I'll check the food that's up there on the counter."

Sunil agreed, and then they both travelled to the specified areas for some inspection on the kitchen. _What could the Biskits possible be up to?_ Russell thought. _It's definitely something. I can tell._

He got up on one of the stools, and climbed up onto the kitchen counter, where all the frozen fruit salads remained after Blythe went off to the grocery store recently. _Seems like a good place to start off._ "Find anything yet, guys?"

"Yeah!" Penny Ling confirmed, "I saved this piece of cake for you! Catch it!" She asked and flung a slice of plain sponge cake to Russell, who was showing his back. So, the cake ended up landing on Russell's quills. He took the cake and munched it.

"Well, thanks. But I meant did you find anything suspicious yet?"

Penny Ling was holding out a packet of coffee seeds "Oh… well, I found this expired coffee."

"Expired?!" _What if the customers are having it?!_

"Uh-huh. But it looks like no one opened it yet."

 _What a relief! No one's used it yet._ It was interesting, but not interesting anymore since it's sealed.

"Ok. Excellent job, Penny Ling. Keep up the good work."

"Thanks!" She yelled with a gleaming smiled, and got back to eating the plain sponge cake. Russell check up on Sunil. He seems to be turning off the tap on the sink.

"How is going over there, Sunil?"

"The water is fine, and the sink looks clean."

"Good." _This is going great!_

"Russy!" Penny Ling called from the open cupboard.

"Yes?"

"Have another piece of cake!" She threw it at him, but with accidentally more force then the previous throw. Russell managed to catch it, but it had so much momentum and pressure, he was pushed backwards by the force, and he bumped into an empty wine glass. It dropped onto the ground and separated into a million pieces with a loud noise!

The Biskits, who were at the entrance, heard the sound coming from the kitchen. They stopped using their phones and looked around.

"Did you, like, hear that?!" Brittany asked.

"Uh, I think so. So, ya."

"What was it?"

"Maybe it's, like, Blythe. She must be so mad at us, that she's breaking our $500 silverware."

They laughed, they didn't even care about the glass. If Blythe was suffering, it was fine to them. However, Blythe was having a quick break at the pizza place with her friends. The jokes are on the Biskit twins!

In the kitchen, Russell knew he messed up. He looked down from the counter, and his face looked remorseful. _I hope that wasn't expensive… or even needed_.

"Uh-oh… Sorry, Russy." Penny Ling apologized, "Must have thrown it too hard."

 _Russy?_

"See what I said about this not being a clever idea?" Sunil said worry. "Now Blythe is going to be mad at us."

"No, she won't!" Russell objected, "I'll hide the pieces, so that Blythe won't notice it."

"Don't you think being honest is better?"

Sunil was right, but it would freak out Blythe if she knew. Russell knew how much stress Blythe's been in recently, and having her know this would probably make her faint. "I can't. Not now, she's probably in a very bad mood. I'll tell her after tonight."

 _Seems like a promising idea._

Before Russell could clean up the mess on the ground, he realized that the frozen fruit salads on the counter looked odd. He noticed that five of the frozen fruit salads didn't have any mayonnaise on them, whereas the rest did. _What the huh?_

"That's odd," Russell said, "These salads don't have any mayo on them."

This gave Russell an idea! _Maybe I could help Blythe by adding the mayonnaise to those frozen fruit salads._

Russell spotted a mayonnaise bottle beside him: the good mayo. He held it, but suddenly felt its light weight. _Well, what do you know? It's empty. I guess that explains the fact that there's no mayo on the other salads. There's got to be another mayo bottle around here somewhere._

"Ok, guys. Keep a look out for a mayonnaise bottle. I'll clean up this mess."

Penny Ling and Sunil made sounds of approval, and looked around. On the other hand, Russell took out a brush and a plate to clean up the mess he made. He got down from the counter, and used the brush to push the broken glass pieces onto the plate. Russell looked around, and spotted a bin on the corner of the kitchen. _There's the bin_ , he thought with relief as he found a place to hide the mess.

Struggling to hold the plate, he got up on the top of the bin on the edge, and he poured the broken glass in. But what caught his eye, was that when he looked in the bin… there was another mayo bottle in the bin!

In fact, it was…

…the special Biskits mayo!

"What's a mayo bottle like this doing here? Is it empty?"

Finally, something interesting! Russell tried to pull up the special mayo from the bin, but it weighed was as heavy as a rock. "Whoa, this bottle is full! And it's also sealed! Who'd put a whole mayo bottle to waste?!"

With just enough effort, he successfully pulled the mayo bottle out of the bin, and took it with him to the counter, joined by Penny Ling and Sunil, who also crawled up on the counter. Although Russell was curious, he didn't seem to see the problem with this special Biskits mayonnaise. _The bottle seems fine. There doesn't seem to be any dents on it. And it's perfectly sealed._ Focusing on the bottle, Sunil said "Let's talk about the real problem here. We know that Blythe is not here. But where is she?"

Russell didn't think about that. _Maybe she's in the bathroom?_

"Did she leave us?!" asked Penny Ling, who was just about to cry waves of tears.

"Don't be ridiculous!" Russell denied, "She'd never leave us. She's probably in the toilet, trying to calm down from the Biskits."

Saying that calmed down Penny Ling.

"Is this mayonnaise expired too?" asked Sunil.

"I'm not sure."

Penny Ling rotated the bottle and read the expiration date. The date is a year later. "No, it seems ok." She said. What she didn't know was that, as said previously, the real expiration date says it expired months ago! The Biskits recently scratched off the real date and wrote a future date over it to trick Blythe. Luckily, she didn't use it. Penny Ling was still hungry, and thought she might want to try the mayonnaise.

So, she decided to open the cap, but before she could, she almost passed out from smelling the expired mayonnaise in the bottle. She complained while holding her nose "Oh wow! That is strong!"

Russell took a sniff too, the strong smell made him cough. "What kind of mayo IS this?!"

"Probably a mayo with a lot of flavor in." Sunil pointed out. "A lot of classy people like flavor."

Russell looked at the main label. It says _special Biskits mayo_. However, as said recently, it was a normal branded mayo, that was relabeled by the Biskits to mask the real bottle. None of the critters knew this either.

"Special Biskits mayo? I didn't know they manufactured their own mayonnaise."

Penny Ling agreed, and decided to taste the mayo. She stuck her finger in the bottle, and licked the mayo from the bottle. Russell checked the ingredients on the other side of the bottle. The ingredients seem fine too.

"How is it?" Russell asked.

…

"It's alright." Penny Ling said, the taste made her smile because it was sweet. "It tastes like normal mayo, but it is pretty good!"

"Maybe they have added some sort of secret ingredient in their mayonnaise, like how a lot of other restaurants do." Sunil suggested. "A lot of customers like that."

Russell placed his hand under his chin, and thought. _If Sunil is making positive suggestions, and Penny Ling likes the mayonnaise… then maybe it's good!_

 _…_ _I have an idea! I'll add this special Biskits mayo to these salads and the business will be a success! And Blythe won't be humiliated by the Biskits!_

"Thanks for helping, guys." Russell thanked. "I'm putting this mayonnaise on the salads."

"You're welcome." Sunil said, looking brave "Who wouldn't help a hedgehog friend?"

"Russy?" Penny Ling asked.

"Yes?"

She started with her cute face "The mayo tasted nice. So, could you please save some of the mayo for me when you finish using it?"

"Um, sure. How much?"

"At least half the bottle."

"Half?!"

She's doing the puppy face…! _Can't… Resist… Must… Refuse…_

"Ok ok! Stop with the adorable face! You can have half, but AFTER I finish using it."

"Promise?"

"Promise."

"Yay, thank you so much, Russy!"

 _Why does she keep calling me "Russy"?_

The critters used a spoon and applied the special Biskits mayo onto the frozen fruit salads, while carefully trying to save the rest of the mayo left in the bottle for Penny Ling to enjoy. After they were done, they felt proud.

"Ok, I think our job is done here." Russell congratulated. "Let's go back to the others now."

Penny Ling took the mayo bottle, which had half of the mayo remaining in the bottle. Russell DID promise her she could have the rest. The critters happily left with the mayo and closed the kitchen door, to return to the other pets in the backstage.

They've used the Biskits mayo on the frozen fruit salads… This isn't good… This isn't good at all…


	11. Don't involve us!

"I would like three extra-large pepperoni pizzas, please! And throw in a few sodas while you're at it, alright?" Jasper said to the cook at the stand, back in the pizza place.

"Three? I thought we agreed on two. Buy one and get another for free, remember?" Sue reminded.

"Yeah, but since you guys have also agreed that we should share one, I might as well order an extra one for myself. I wanted two in the first place anyway."

"But, doesn't that ruin the purpose of the offer?"

He couldn't argue with that, so he just huffed and corrected the order. "Ok never mind about three pepperoni pizzas. Just two pepperoni pizzas, please."

Blythe's phone was ringing again. Perhaps it was Mrs. Twombly again, so she didn't bother checking who was calling and answered straight away.

She said on the phone, while being relaxed, "Hi, Mrs. Twombly. Did you reach the restaurant yet?"

"Hi, Blythe. It's your dad."

 _OMG. It's dad!_

Roger Baxter is Blythe's dad. Roger is a pilot and cares a lot for Blythe, although he acts silly most of the time, resulting in heavily embarrassing Blythe.

Roger was on the phone this time, confused about why she thought he was Mrs. Twombly. _Can't kids even bother checking their phones_ , he wondered.

"Dad?! H-hi! Sorry, I guess I didn't check who was calling and I just presumed it was Mrs. Twombly who was calling!" She said with laughter.

 _Just as I thought_ , Roger thought proudly. "Ok, that's fine. I've just finished my shift at work, and now I'm at home, but I can't find you. Where are you, you don't seem to be in your room. Are you hiding in the fire hydrant again? Is something the matter? You can tell your dad."

"Of course, I'm not hiding in there without letting you know. I'm at a restaurant."

"A restaurant?! Why didn't you invite me?"

"Let's just say I just wanted to check it out during daytime. And yes, I know it's night-time, but I have a good reason."

Blythe explained to Roger the WHOLE story of how she is working against her own will, and after she was done, the pizza was ready! Nice! Blythe and her friends were ready to go, and they were on their way back to the restaurant while eating the pizza. Blythe was still on the phone with Roger.

"Well, why didn't you just quit being the cook?" Roger suggested.

"You don't get it, dad. I would, but the Biskits are blackmailing me, and they'd humiliate me in public if I don't work for them. So here I am."

"Don't worry, honey. It's only for a few more hours."

 _Yay… such great support, dad… thanks…_

Roger continued, "So where's Mrs. Twombly, I haven't seen her either. Maybe she's in the fire hydrant."

"No one's in the fire hydrant, dad. And Mrs. Twombly's arriving to the restaurant too. As far as I know, she hasn't reached there yet."

"You're inviting her too?! Why not me?!"

"I'm not inviting her! She's only going to help. Would YOU like to help?"

"Of course! I'll be on my way! Love ya!"

"Wait I was jokin-"

Roger hung up. _Classic dad, not going against his word. Sure, it was nice getting help from a dad. But I have a feeling this will bring in even more embarrassment._

"Is everything alright, Blythe?" Youngmee asked as she recognized Blythe's upsetting face.

"Yeah. But, you don't mind if my dad comes along, do you?"

Her friends stopped walking, and so did Blythe. Her friends seem to be looking at Blythe as if she said something wrong… _Is it that bad?_

"Totally!" Youngmee cheered, "Your dad is so awesome!"

"Well, yeah. But knowing him, he'll probably just make a mess."

"I guess. But it will be a good laugh." she objected.

"Right, and Jasper and Sue are ok with this too?"

They both nodded while eating the pizza, signaling that they're fine with it too. Rather, they would've preferred Roger involved instead. _This will probably be an unforgettable night._

Russell, Penny Ling, and Sunil approached all the other pets in the backstage. They were chatting and laughing, but as soon as they glanced at the small group arriving, they went to them hastily.

"What happened?!" Zoe asked worryingly, "Is my darling Russell alright?! Oh, erm… I mean, are you ALL alright?"

Vinnie and Pepper snickered because of what Zoe blurted.

"I am fine, thank you very much for your concern, Zoe." Russell said, highlighting what Zoe accidentally blurted a few seconds ago. "But, I think we have found the problem!"

"What's up, doc?!" Buttercream asked.

Penny Ling showed the pets the special Biskits mayonnaise that was in the bin before; she placed it upright on the ground. The pets stared at it in surprise; they aren't familiar with the brand name. The special Biskits mayo?

"What's this?" Vinnie asked.

"It's a mayonnaise bottle, Vinnie. It tastes uncomfortably strong if you ask me." Sunil answered.

"Why do you have this?" Minka wondered while climbing around the bottle casually, and peeked inside the bottle, "Is there something wrong with it?"

"That is a pretty good theory, Minka." Russell stated.

"Is it as good as the theory about time travel that you keep denying?!"

 _I knew Minka would mention it again!_ "That depends, but that doesn't really matter. What matters is your previous question: Is there something wrong with it?"

Well, what's the point of thinking about it if it's already been used on the salads.

While it may not have been a theory about time travel, that didn't stop Minka from being excited. "Oh, I get it! Looks like this is a mystery for… Cyril McFlip!"

The pets were about to sing the theme, even Sugar Sprinkles and Buttercream Sunday! But Russell managed to stop them in time by interrupting them. _Is this name like some sort of trigger of the song or something? Because the pets always sing it whenever they hear that name._

"I'd like to do the investigation right now, guys. However, we don't have time for it."

Russell tried to reason with the disappointed bunch, "I know, I know. But the audience needs us, and I don't want to get caught by the Biskits, in case they were up to something. Again, that isn't something I can't really confirm yet."

"Aww…" Minka was very disappointed.

"Don't worry! I'm sure we'll have time after the play for the investigation."

"And don't forget we're getting to try out the food afterwards!" yipped Zoe.

The kitchen door opened. Blythe and her friends were back! Blythe looked around; Mrs. Twombly wasn't here yet. Quite disappointing. _Where are you, Mrs. Twombly?_

Blythe looked at the frozen fruit salads, trying to look at the salads that she hasn't applied the mayonnaise to. But, there was mayonnaise on every one of the salads. "What the huh?!"

"What happened, Blythe?!" asked Youngmee.

"The- the mayo is on every salad!"

"Yeah, so?"

"There were five salads that didn't have any mayo on them! I'm sure of it!"

Sue and Jasper looked at the salads. "Looks fine to me." he commented. "Yep. Looks good." agreed Sue.

Blythe couldn't believe this.

"Ok, so what if it has mayo now." Youngmee asked. "Doesn't it make things better, since we don't need to buy anymore?"

"I guess. But it's still weird. I literally saw five plates without mayo, and we went to buy more, but we didn't find ones cold enough. Now we're back, and this has mayo now? You saw it too, right?!"

"You were the only one checking the salads." Youngmee corrected. "I was sorting the plates."

Sue said "Maybe it's just your stress Blythe. You worried too much, that you thought you didn't add mayonnaise to the others. But since you're feeling better…"

It did make sense. And because of that, Blythe was sure that Sue was right. "You're right! It was just my stress!"

 _I guess Sue is right. My stress has had me worked up recently. Maybe because I was stressed, I wasn't thinking straight and thought the plates didn't have mayo. Phew!_

 _Making 40 successful frozen fruit salads: check!_

Blythe and her friends assisted in taking all the frozen fruit salad plates and delivered them to the Biskits at the entrance. They were using their phones again.

"Sorry," Blythe said with a weak smile, "You'll have to give the salads first before we move onto the main course, we didn't make those yet. Do you mind if two more people come to help us with the meals?"

Whittany looked up from her phone. "They can, like, come. And that's fine if the customers have the desserts first."

"How can you be sure of that?"

"Do you, like, really need an answer for that?"

"Oh, right. Silly me! Of course, You'll bribe them."

"Like, uh-huh."

"Here." Blythe says as she and her friends hand the plates to the Biskits.

"We'll take these frozen fruit salads to the customers, or, whatever."

Brittany agreed, and the Biskits took the plates to deliver to the customers, or whatever. The customers were relieved as they saw food like they've never seen it before! Blythe and her friends had one less thing to worry about. In fact, they had forty less things to worry about. Ha! Puns!

And that wasn't the end of the good news, because Mrs. Twombly and Roger have entered the restaurant now! Blythe was glad, and she saw Mrs. Twombly's red dress. "Hey. Nice dress, Mrs. Twombly. Really fancy!"

"Oh, thanks, Blythe! Sorry I took long, there was busy traffic, and I couldn't find any parking spots! And your father has called me and decided to come here too. Lucky for you, here is my cook book!"

"Awesome sauce! Hey, dad!"

Roger, in his pilot suit, looked around in embarrassment as he compared his clothes to the customers in the distance, "Hi, honey. Guess I should've worn something fancier than my pilot suit, huh?"

"Don't worry, you look handsome in it."

"You think so?"

"Absolutely."

They hugged, "Thanks, sweetie."

Blythe was too eager to start! "Mrs. Twombly, dad, let's go. We have twenty hungry customers to feed!"

They all followed Blythe into the kitchen to start making the meals.

Finally, the cooking begins!

The pets were still focusing on the bottle in the backstage, feeling quite unsure about this mayo.

"So, what did you do with this mayo?" Sugar Sprinkles asked, focusing on the bottle with a gentle smile as always.

"Glad you asked." Russell started explaining, "After some investigation upon this object, I have decided that it is safe. Some of the food made by Blythe and her friends were missing mayonnaise. So, I figured that it would be helpful of me to add this mayonnaise to the remaining plates. It was odd that it wasn't used yet."

"Right, and where did you get the mayo from if it wasn't used?" asked Pepper curiously, having a bad feeling about the mayo.

"…The bin." answered Sunil embarrassingly.

There was dead silence for a few seconds all around, followed by a few noises of disgust coming from the pets. Now that Russell thought about it, it did sound weird to use food from a bin, rather off-putting as well.

"That's… quite… disgusting." commented Zoe in a sickened voice.

"Well it was Russell's idea."

Russell snapped at Sunil. "Hey! The bin wasn't THAT dirty anyway, the bottle was the only thing in the bin! And besides, the mayonnaise was inside the container, so it was protected from the dirt of the bin! That is IF the bin had any dirt! Need I go on?! Until then, I therefore rest my case!"

"Russell's right." Penny Ling agreed, "This mayo wouldn't taste good otherwise."

"It tastes good?!" asked Zoe hesitantly, then covered her mouth with her paws as if she was going to barf. Pepper chuckled and patted Zoe on the back to assist her.

"Actually, it just tastes like normal mayonnaise."

 _Tastes like normal mayonnaise?_ Russell thought. _Well, that goes onto my list of points that support the fact that the mayonnaise is safe._

Minka sniffed the bottle, and it made her crazy! She was running all around the place, making monkey noises! Was it THAT bad? Russell stood corrected. _And there goes another point onto my list of points that goes against the fact that the mayonnaise is safe._

Penny Ling just shrugged. So, she went ahead and laid the mayonnaise bottle on its side, and dived right in, eating the Biskits mayo.

The pets were convinced enough that the mayonnaise was alright. Russell did have good intensions on adding the mayonnaise after all.

However, the only pet that didn't approve was Sugar Sprinkles. She was worried about this. Was she involved?! What if it caused something terrible?! What would happen? The Biskits name on the bottle brought bad hopes to her. She hated the name, and she hated the bottle already. She didn't want anything to do with it! She could tell that there was something bad about the bottle, and she didn't want her best friend, Buttercream Sunday, to be a victim. She hoped Russell was right, but she was very, _very_ mad with him because he took the risk without any kind of notice given to her whatsoever…

And that's when things get quite intense… when Sugar Sprinkles slowly snaps…

Sugar Sprinkles decided to approached Russell, looking serious this time as her face was _NOT_ a smile. "Russell? Are you sure this mayonnaise is safe?" she said in a dead, flat tone. It was hard to tell her expression.

"Umm… yeah, I guess… what's wrong?"

Sugar Sprinkles didn't answer. She continued walked towards Russell, and just kept walking towards him. She was getting too close to him, and she was quite aware of that, so she continued walking forward without stuttering while staring straight at Russell. Her face was unemotional. This was going nowhere good. All Russell could do was nothing; he was confused and scared.

As she was walking, she was too close to him, that it caused him to move backwards. Russell is starting to feel growing remorse as she stares even more, holding a serious face and starts whispering to him, ensuring that no other pet hears him. This wasn't the Sugar Sprinkles that anyone knew. _Is this anything to do with the mayonnaise_ , Russell thought.

She whispered.

"Listen, I am only here because Youngmee brought me and said you pets were doing a play. I was excited to come and watch your act, so I will watch it. But that's all. I'm not involved with this whole mayonnaise thing. So, I really hope that you know what you are doing. And I hope that this mayonnaise is safe too. Because if this mayonnaise DOESN'T turn out to be safe, then we all might be in danger. And so will Buttercream. We do not want to get involved."

As she was whispering, her voice tone was slowly rising. This kitten was angry!

 _This isn't the Sugar Sprinkles I know! She looks ferocious!_ This cat was mad, because she didn't want to get involved with the mayonnaise. She had a feeling far too bad about it.

And she was also doing it, mainly for the sake of her best friend, Buttercream Sunday. Sugar Sprinkles would rather be kept and locked up in Largest Ever Pet Store for all of eternity, rather than seeing Buttercream in despair or hurt. Buttercream is way too innocent. Sugar Sprinkles didn't want her to be involved in it either.

This threatening cat kept on walking towards him non-stop, and Russell couldn't help but keep on walking backwards. Until, he was blocked by a window behind him, and he couldn't move any further. The cat stopped, only half an inch of space was spared between each other's eyes. Sugar Sprinkles angry eyes against Russell's confused and scared eyes. The staring didn't help either. Russell didn't want to think he was guilty, no one did!

She continued, "Buttercream Sunday is my best friend, and I don't want anything bad to happen to her. Otherwise…"

Russell slowly tried to calm her down by suggesting, "Sugar Sprinkles? Maybe you should calm down. I mean, if it was poisonous mayo, then maybe you'd like to help us? You know, you can-"

PHWAM!

She swiftly punched the window behind Russell, so hard, that it broke into shards as her clenched paw went through it! The window broke in a million pieces and flew to the ground, making the noise of each individual shard to be heard aloud along with an echo against the silence… Russell was leaning on that window, and he was about to fall out as the window broke, but Sugar Sprinkles managed to grab him by his chest and pull him up. This caught the attention of the other pets, and led them to a shock! They wanted to help, but were too afraid of Sugar Sprinkles.

Remember the time when she got mad because she didn't have any sprinkles on her hair?! That's why the pets where afraid. Don't underestimate Sugar Sprinkles!

Russell thought he did the right thing. Sugar Sprinkles thought otherwise. _Why didn't he tell us before he used it?! All we can do now is to hope that the mayonnaise is good._

Sugar Sprinkles sighed and gave her very last warning. "Don't. Get. Me. Or. Buttercream. Involved. Got it?!"

Russell was sweating and trembling! She was very defending, and was ready for anything! This was a huge escalation from a few minutes ago! _How could a cute, innocent, calm, optimistic cat… turn into this!_

He hesitantly answered in his quiet and high-pitched voice "…o… k…"

Sugar Sprinkles face instantly changed from an angry mad face to a sweet, little smile like she always had. "That's great." She said happily in her joyful tone.

She pulled Russell back up and walked away from the backstage to join the audience. However, Russell was on all fours, still breathing and struggling to stop his panic attack. Looks like Russell has found himself a new threat. _What just happened?!_ The other pets sprinted and tried to help Russell.

"Are you ok?! Did she hurt you?" asked Sunil, "I knew this was a bad idea!"

Russell was heavily breathing, and scared. He realized what Sugar Sprinkles was trying to say; she's too afraid of the mayonnaise being poisonous - if it is - and she doesn't want herself or Buttercream to be put in danger if it does turn out to be poisonous. But Russell thought that it wasn't certain that the mayonnaise was even poisonous. Penny Ling liked it, and she's already eating it as we speak. And the mayonnaise seems to taste normal, per Penny Ling.

Russell got Sugar Sprinkles message loud and clear, yet, he still thought that the mayonnaise wasn't poisonous.

If the mayonnaise was fine, then Russell will be fine. If the mayonnaise was not fine, then he's in big trouble.

"I'm fine." Russell said, "Don't worry about Sugar Sprinkles. She had a good reason to be angry. But this whole thing was not a bad idea, Sunil. Because the mayonnaise is ok. I mean, look at Penny Ling, she's eating it."

"Are you sure?" asked Pepper. "I'm kind of worried. It looked like she actually threatened you."

"I'm sure, Pepper. This mayonnaise is safe. And I only wanted to help Blythe by adding the mayonnaise to the plates. Why would I let anyone down? And if it isn't safe…"


	12. Finally

Sugar Sprinkles is sitting at one of the empty tables, happily waiting for the act to begin. Meanwhile, she watched the customers as they ate their frozen fruit salads, and they looked like they enjoyed it. Maybe the mayonnaise was safe. But she felt guilty.

Now, she was as joyful as always, so she's rethinking about how she reacted previously.

 _I know I'm supposed to be mad with Russell, but what was I thinking when I threatened him?! I sort of feel bad for after what I did, I think I overreacted. Hopefully I can apologize to him after the act, I never thought I could have ever gotten mad at him. He was always innocent somehow. I guess I was just watching out for myself and Buttercream, but I think I went overprotective and me aggressive._

In the kitchen, we can see Mrs. Twombly and Roger in the kitchen trying to make the meals, while Blythe and her friends are outside. It seems to be due to some sort of emergency, as there seems to be something wrong with Jasper.

"I think I've eaten too much pizza…" Jasper confessed while wrapping his arms around his stomach. He could barely stand up straight!

Sue was patting on Jasper's shoulders with a small grin. "To be honest with you, I saw that one coming. You've always gotta be sick somehow."

"I didn't know pizza could do this to me."

"Was it because you ate an 18-inch pizza in 5 minutes?"

"Actually, I've eaten two."

"That point is on my side."

"Stop being smart! It's not helping me and my sore stomach."

"What are we going to do?" Youngmee said, sounding panicky, "I think we've just lost a cook!"

"Sorry," Sue said with guilt, "I think you guys will have to lose two cooks. I need to leave as well to take care of Jasper, in case he… well, you know… barfs."

For some reason, Blythe wasn't affected by this. "That's fine. We'll take care of things from here."

Youngmee was surprised. Blythe was usually the panicky one while Youngmee was usually the calm one, but now it's vice versa.

"Are you sure?" Sue asked for confirmation as she remembered how stressed Blythe was previously. At least they had Mrs. Twombly and Roger to help anyway.

"I'm sure. Thanks so much for helping, you can go take care of Jasper. Someone will need to take care of him after all. And I'm not willing to do that." Blythe said jokingly.

"Hey!" Jasper said.

Blythe waved goodbye and watched Sue leave with Jasper.

The Biskit twins, who were walking by, noticed them leaving. "Did you, like, see that, Brittany?" Whittany said.

"See what? The amazing-but-useless paintings that we bought?" Brittany guessed and pointed at the original Mona Lisa portrait on their side.

"No. I mean, like, did you see Blythe's friends leave?"

Brittany looked around and saw Sue leaving with Jasper. "Oh ya! Like, totally! Blythe's friends are so chickening out."

"Maybe our restaurant is too good for them."

"Duh. Only WE can afford a restaurant like this. People like them order at fast food restaurants."

"Fast food?" Whittany said in disgust. "That food lasts for like, 2 seconds by the time it's prepared. Barf."

"Uh-huh, like, barf." Brittany said.

Changing the subject, Whittany asked, "It's weird how Blythe and Youngmee are still handling this job."

"Totes! Let's go to them." suggested Brittany.

The Biskit twins decide to approach Blythe and Youngmee, who were having a conversation.

"Oh look." Whittany started, "It's Bleughhh!"

"Umm… it's actually Blythe." Blythe herself corrected with worry about Whittany. _Has she lost her tongue or something, or what was with that pronunciation?_

"Whatever." Brittany said, "Anyway, we saw your friends leaving. Did you stop being friends?"

"No. They are just leaving because of an emergency."

"I see." Whittany said. "Let's go, Brittany."

The Biskits left them. So, Blythe and Youngmee decided to return to the kitchen.

A few seconds later, they arrived in the kitchen. Looks like Sue and Jasper are out, and now there's only Blythe, Youngmee, Mrs. Twombly and Roger. When they entered the kitchen. They saw Roger, covered in flour.

"Dad?" Blythe asked, not looking surprise. "What happened this time?"

"Blythe! No worries. I'm just trying to bake."

Chuckling, Blythe decided to give Roger a towel, and looked at Mrs. Twombly, who is at the table and gathering ingredients for the meals. Blythe was glad someone knew how to make the meals.

"Mrs. Twombly, you have no idea how grateful I am for you to help."

"Don't mention it, sweetie. I used to do this on vacations!"

"Really?"

"Yup. I worked for a few shifts at restaurants during my vacations."

"Right. Although, I wouldn't really consider that a vacation anymore."

"Your probably right. Don't worry about me, Blythe. Me and Roger will take care of things."

"Take care of things? You mean me and Youngmee don't have to work here anymore?!"

"Absolutely! I see you've worked hard enough on making the fruit salads, so me and Roger will make the main courses. Won't you, Roger."

"Uh-huh." Roger agreed, still trying to wipe his face. He opened a cupboard above him, to find some food. However, inside was another open bag of flour and it poured over him, covering his whole body in flour. Again.

"Seriously, dad?" Blythe said, embarrassed. Youngmee just laughed instead.

"Thank you, Mrs. Twombly!"

Blythe and Youngmee left the restaurant happily. _Yay! No more making the impossible meals_ , Blythe thought.

"I realize something!" Youngmee gasped joyfully.

"Oh yeah?"

"We don't need to make the food anymore. Do you know what this means?!"

"It means we don't need to make the food anymore?"

"Well, yeah. But it also means we can watch our pets do the act!"

This sudden remembrance makes Blythe happy. "Oh my gosh! I forgot! We can finally watch it!"

"Blythe, I would like you to be my personal pet translator. I want to know what the pets are saying."

"Ok sure. Haven't I always been your personal translator?"

"Oh yeah."

"And haven't I always told you what the pets say, apart from the times when watching they say seem pretty obvious?"

"Yup! I'm just way too excited to see the act!"

They approached the Biskits to spread the good news.

"Guys." Blythe said. "I've decided that I'm not going to work for you anymore. If you're going to have to embarrass me, then so be it. Mrs. Twombly and my dad have things covered. I mean, your job is impossible for me, I can't be a chef."

Youngmee nodded in agreement. The Biskits knew that Blythe has used their special mayonnaise on the salad, so they feel like it was ok to let Blythe go. They thought that there was no need to humiliate Blythe anymore, as things were already going to plan: framing Blythe and closing Littlest Pet Shop. "I've changed my mind." Whittany said.

"Changed your mind? About what?" Blythe said.

"We won't embarrass you with the picture. I know how much trouble you've been through. So, we'll, like, let you go."

"Thank you so much!" Blythe cheered as she hugged Whittany tightly. As much as Whittany liked the hug, she realized that her sister was watching, and Whittany had to stop the hug.

"Well, like, fine. Or whatever. Enjoy the rest of your night." Whittany said, smiling. They walked away again.

"That was weird, Blythe." commented Youngmee jokingly. "You never fail to surprise me."

Blythe rubbed her arms in embarrassment and chuckled awkwardly.

Finally, they sat at a table, waiting for the show to start.

The pets are in the backstage, still surrounding Russell because of what happened between him and Sugar Sprinkles. The pets were quite worried about Russell, because they've never seen him in a situation like this before.

"So, what happens if the mayonnaise is poisonous?" asked Sunil.

"Didn't you think it was safe?" Russell asked, who's slowly getting annoyed by that constant question.

"I am just making sure."

"Well who knows? I don't know what will happen next."

Russell looked down, and thought how much of a mess he's just made. _I can't believe it. I wanted to help. But all I get in return is someone interrogating me, and I've also lost a special friend…_

The pets weren't sure of what to do about this as they stood there, looking concerned. Penny Ling, however, didn't like Russell being pressured like this, so she tried to comfort Russell and persuade the others to stop pressuring him. "Can't you see Russell is sad? Look what you've to him! It's not his fault. He's innocent. Don't make him feel bad about it!"

At least Russell appreciated Penny Ling's support.

While Penny Ling backed up Russell to make him feel better, she suddenly burped. Vinnie heard it and claimed, "I didn't do it."

"Pfft. We know that." Pepper said as she snickered, "It didn't even sound like it was coming from your direction."

"Excuse you, dear." Zoe commented nearby.

"Oops." Penny Ling said, chuckling. "I guess it was the mayonnaise. It was pretty strong."

Hearing that made Russell worried, especially worried about Penny Ling. He remembered that she ate the remaining of the sauce after it was used on the salad. _What if it's poisoned her too?_

 _…_

 _Nah… don't be ridiculous, Russell. Penny Ling looks alright. The poison would've been noticeable by now, so it looks like the mayonnaise is safe. But making sure wouldn't hurt, would it?_

"Thanks for making me feel better. It helps a lot." Russell said.

"Don't worry about it, Russy."

"…"

"Russy? Is something the matter?" Penny Ling asked worryingly as she placed her paw on Russell's shoulder. He was still worried about the poison. He wanted to make sure that she was ok, that's all.

"A-are you alright? Are you going to be alright?"

Penny Ling was quite surprised at that question. If someone wasn't feeling alright, it was Russell.

"Yeah, of course. What do you mean?"

"You did eat the mayonnaise."

"Right."

"Are you sure it didn't taste weird? I mean, I believed you, but I'm still worried."

"Why be worried?"

"I don't want you to get poisoned by it, that is if it is poisonous."

"Don't worry about me. I'm fine, and I will be."

"Ok. Well, promise me you'll tell me if you're feeling weird from the mayonnaise, ok?"

"I promise."

Penny Ling was going to return to her friends, but before she could do that, she turned back to Russell.

She said, "Thanks for caring about me."

Then she took off. Russell felt better after hearing Penny Ling thanking him. But then again, he did care about everyone.

 _Well then,_ Russell thought. _I hope Penny Ling's alright. At least she'll let me know if she suddenly gets poisoned from the mayonnaise. I mean, not that the mayonnaise was poisonous to begin with! That's one thing off my mind. Now there's only one thing to worry about: Sugar Sprinkles._

 _I know I didn't tell her about the mayonnaise, I didn't know she'd take it so seriously. I'll have to make it up to her somehow… maybe an apology? I'll do that, but it doesn't seem enough to get her forgiveness. I'll think of something after the play._

Russell was eager to do the act, and so were Blythe and Youngmee as they were sitting at one of the tables.

"Oh boy, look at those frozen fruit salads!" Youngmee pointed out. "You did an excellent job at making them look tasty, Blythe."

"Thanks. I just hope they ARE tasty." Blythe said.

"Of course, they are. You can tell from the looks on the customers' faces."

Blythe was still feeling doubtful about the salads. "It still feels odd."

"Odd?"

"Yeah. Now that I think about it, I'm sure I've left a few salads without the mayonnaise. What if I actually wasn't freaking out?"

"Blythe." Youngmee said calmly, putting her hand on Blythe's shoulder to comfort her. "I'm sure you were just over stressed. I'm sure the salads already had mayonnaise on every plate. Besides, what's the worst that could happen?"

 _Youngmee is right. What's the worst that could happen?_

"You're right." Blythe admitted. "At least the customers are enjoying it."

In the backstage, Russell peeked out through the curtains to look at the customers. He didn't notice Blythe and Youngmee as they were at the back, but the crowd still looked good to him. Until he noticed that the customers were eating the frozen fruit salad. He gulped and thought about the time when him, Sunil and Penny Ling added the mayonnaise to the remaining plates. Fortunately, the customers looked happy. That means the salads tasted good. What a relief!

Russell went to the group of pets to announce. "Ok guys! The customers are eating their food, and you know what that means?"

Zoe was excited and the first one to guess. "Does that mean we can join them and eat the fancy meals?"

"Or maybe make them spit out their food from laughter while I tell them some cracking jokes?" suggested Pepper excitedly.

"Or perhaps that means we should start the act now?" said Sunil.

The pets finally remembered as they made sounds of remembrance.

"I guess I'll just scoopity-hop out of here and watch the act from the tables." said Buttercream.

As she " _scoopity-hopped_ " away from the stage, the pets grouped up in a circle, like how a rugby team groups in a tight circle.

"Ready, guys?" Russell said. The pets agreed and cheered.

"Uh-huh" Vinnie said. "But what about you?"

"But what about me?"

"You seemed worried before."

"It's ok. I'm fine now."

"Whatever you say, Russell." said Pepper, smiling. The pets agreed as well.

"I'm too excited! Let's just start this act already!" said Minka, who is shaking in excitement.

"Alright." Russell said. "First off, we'll have each one of us appear on the stage one by one, performing what we desire to entertain the customers. This is a starter. Afterwards, we'll move onto the ultimate play. You remember your roles and lines, right?"

The pets approved and nodded.

"Ok, good! For Blythe?"

The pets said all at once, "For Blythe!"


	13. You do have a talent

Every single light - except for the kitchen lights – were suddenly dimming and then turned off. Afterwards, some lights were relighting on the stage and created spotlights as they were facing the stage. It's time for the entertainment that everyone was waiting for! You can tell by looking at the excitement from the customers' faces. The most excited lot were Blythe and Youngmee. They and all the other customers were applauding because they were glad that the show was starting.

"Finally! It's starting, Blythe."

"Yeah, I've been looking forward to this ever since I've stopped working here."

"So that was like, three minutes ago, right? I was waiting since the time you called me."

Blythe just chuckled. _I guess Youngmee's always wanted to see pets do something like this_ , she thought.

Finally, the drums are being heard, which is clearly a good sign! The customers got excited rapidly! But if anyone else is more excited than them, it's Blythe and Youngmee.

Peeking through the stage curtains from inside, Russell rethought about how this overall performance would work.

 _First_ , he thought as he started recapping. _The pets will go onstage one by one and show off their own desired talent to the audience. And then, we'll finish it off with a play. Sounds easy enough._

Russell was feeling nervous, but anyone else would've too. _Time for the show to begin!_

Russell looks back at the pets, who are looking like they're ready to perform, they have their props.

Russell took out and checked his clipboard which contained a list of names. It was the names of the pets that would perform. So, he called up Minka first, because she was the first name in the list.

"Ok, Minka. You're the first one on the list. Are you ready?"

"Yup!" answered Minka, picking up her paint buckets.

"Alright. You'll be painting, right?"

"You got it!" replied Minka excitedly, "I'm going to show them my finest piece of art… using cake batter!"

"Cake batter? Instead of paint?"

"Uh-huh! It will be a delicious masterpiece!"

"Alright. Good point, Minka. Now, get out there and show them what you got!" Russell said, motivating Minka.

The other pets supported and motivated Minka to go out on stage. The customers were waiting for entertainment after all. Minka was ready, and dressed herself in a blue and white striped top, and wore a painting hat. Finally, she took a deep breath, and decided to grab her canvas, chair, and a big bucket of cake batter, and marched out from the backstage. The pets behind her cheered even more!

At last, the pink, hyperactive spider monkey, Minka Mark, is standing onstage, in front of the customers. Time for entertainment!

Blythe and Youngmee cheered from the back, however, Blythe noticed Youngmee seemed very excited.

"You know, me and Minka get along really well!" Youngmee stated.

"Yeah, I remember that time when we were looking for her cousin Cheep-Cheep, and you two managed to find him together."

"I know, right? It almost felt like I could fully communicate with Minka. It sure was a wild adventure!"

"I wonder what Minka has in store for these customers. What the huh? What's she doing with cake batter?"

"I think that's what she'll be painting with."

Minka placed her canvas, facing its back on the audience. That way, the customers won't see what she's painting, and she'll be able to show them what she's painted afterwards. She placed the chair and sat on it, facing the canvas. She placed beside her the buckets that are filled with cake batter.

Stretching her arms and legs, she prepares herself. Using both hands, she dips her small hands in the buckets filled with cake batter, and then pulls them out.

On the side of the stage, there is Vinnie and a CD player, which is part of the performance. Minka glances at Vinnie, signaling him to start the music. Vinnie stands on a CD player, and steps on the red play button on top of the player.

A French, peaceful music track plays, blending with the style of clothes that she's currently wearing: the blue and white striped top with a painting hat. The music track sounds something like a peaceful track that one would listen to while eating in a French, fancy restaurant.

Obviously much fancier than Biskuete. In case you don't remember, Biskuete is the name of the fancy restaurant that the story is currently taking place in. Get it? Because it sounds like Biskit, but it's just a fancy pronunciation of it?

Minka looks back at her blank canvas, with her hands covered in cake batter. She danced along with the music track, and starts flicking cake batter at the canvas with her hands. The audience was curious and had absolutely no idea what kind creation Minka was going to come up with, and neither do I, the narrator!

She continues flicking batter all over the canvas, making seemingly random patterns on the canvas. Or at least that's what it looked like. A few seconds later, she was done! Complete! Finito! Any who…

She decides to turn the canvas towards the audience to let them look at her finalized masterpiece, and it appears to be…

… a drawing of a cupcake! The best part is that it is made from the batter that she flicked onto the canvas with. Get it? Because the cupcake was painted using cake batter, making it seem more delicious than it's supposed to be? Now that's literal art! Because it's delicious. The customers were pleased and applauded, but Minka wasn't quite done yet.

After the customers clapped their hands and praised her, she lifted the buckets that has the remaining cake batter left, and chucked the rest of the cake batter everywhere, splashing the whole audience with the cake batter! Because Minka chucked the cake batter at everyone, the audience was covered in cake batter, including Blythe and Youngmee!

Blythe and Youngmee were both surprised, but as they glanced at each other, they just laughed because of how silly they look covered in cake batter. The audiences would have been shocked and mad at that point, but instead, they tasted the batter that splashed on them. And the taste was good, so they all indulged the taste instead.

Covered in batter, Blythe and Youngmee tasted the batter too. Afterwards, they both made a "Mm mm…" sound, they enjoyed the taste. They liked Minka's performance even more now, and so did everybody else!

Even Buttercream and Sugar Sprinkles were both covered in cake batter and liked it as they tasted it. The audience loved the taste of the cake batter. Everybody applauded and cheered for Minka, who was bowing to the audience, and walked back with her props through the curtain, entering the backstage where she was no longer seen by the customers.

When she entered the backstage, she was met with the other pets applauding for her too.

"Well done!" commented Russell. "I never thought you'd also paint the audience too."

"Thanks, Russell!" Minka said. "The audience just had to know that my art was magnifico!"

As Minka relaxed on a pillow, Russell checked for the next name on the list on his clipboard. "Indeed, they had to. Now, the next pet to perform will be…"

Drum rolls…

"…Vinnie! You're up. You're performing a dance act; am I correct?"

"That's right!" Vinnie says in a cool-sounding tone, "They better get ready for Vincent Terrio!"

He strolls out confidently through the curtains and is now face to face with the crowd. Onstage, he starts by casually tap dancing. It was quite impressive. However, he started to complicate the dance. He changed the dance moves, the patterns and the timings at random times to give off an original dance, it was working nicely and it looked cool. Towards the end of the dance, he finished off by performing a huge backflip! The customers looked in awe as he was airborne. When he landed, he landed on his tail, and uses his tail to hold his whole body in mid-air. He then makes a "ta-da!" gesture while mid-air, waiting for the praise from the crowd in front of the dancer. It was silent for a few seconds; they were speechless…

The customers were astonished, they got up from their seats and cheered for the green gecko! "Thank you! Thank you!" He yelled joyfully, which only turned out to sound like ordinary gecko noises to the customers. But at least Youngmee had an idea of what he was trying to say. Blythe was the only one who knew what he said.

"I think he'll be famous one day." Youngmee commented. "His moves were awesome!"

"Totally!" Blythe agreed.

He walked back through the stage curtain and returned to the group of cheering pets.

"That was amazing!" complimented Pepper, "How did you not make a mistake in your routine?!"

Vinnie looked at his tail, the tail being the main reason why he tripped over all the time. However, he wasn't sure himself why he didn't trip over now, "Heh. I guess I was serious."

Sugar Sprinkles, feeling curious, was sneaking into the backstage, wondering what the pets were up to without knowing she was here. She was hiding because she wanted to know whether she's done the right thing when she threatened Russell earlier. And the only way she'd find out was to observe Russell. Watching Russell will teach her more about him, and she'll find out whether she did the right thing or not. She was hiding behind a large stool nearby, so the pets couldn't see her. She curiously listened to what the pets were talking about.

"Well, I'm really impressed." added Russell, "Excellent job. Let's move onto the next pet now, which is… Sunil."

Sunil was suddenly nervous because he wasn't feeling confident. Vinnie might not have made a mistake in his dancing, but Sunil didn't want to take risk with magic. The consequences seem bigger. "I don't know, Russell. I might make a mistake, and we might all be affected by it."

"It's ok, no pressure. I'll just make you go last so that you can have more time to prepare. Is that fine?"

"Thank you, I would appreciate that."

Sugar Sprinkles, still hiding behind the stool, was surprised. She realized that Russell didn't force Sunil to go out and perform. So, Russell seems to have a gentle personality to her. This got her thinking about whether she did the right thing about threatening Russell earlier. Maybe she went too hard on him. She decided to continue watching the pets to find out more.

Russell changed the list of names on his checklist, so that Sunil's name is at the bottom of the list. "That leaves us to the next name on the list, which is Pepper. Are you ready, Pepper?"

Pepper wore her clown outfit, got on her unicycle and swung her rubber chicken. "I'm more than ready!"

Unfortunately, that didn't seem to be the case, as the other pets sniffed and recognized a very unpleasant smell coming from Pepper. That usually meant Pepper is feeling uncomfortable. Usually she had so much confidence when publicly performing. What was stopping her?

"Are you sure about that?" Russell asked for confirmation, because he knew that smell when he smelt it. Pepper looked around, starting to get even more nervous, "N-nervous?"

Sugar Sprinkles was slightly surprised when she heard Russell say that. She didn't know Russell knew his friends very well. He must've known these critters for years! Every second she spends watching the pets keeps making her feel guilt. Nevertheless, she continued observing.

Pepper fidgeted with her rubber chicken for a few seconds while looking nervous, and responded.

"It's ok, I'm j-just nervous. It's just that I don't know what kind of comedy these FANCY people are into, but no stress! I can get it right. W-wish me luck!" She said hesitantly as she left the backstage and rode on her unicycle towards the curtains.

Russell understood why she's nervous now. _Pepper's not used to entertaining fancy people._

She talked to herself so she can try to calm down. "Don't worry, Pepper. You've entertained people multiple times; this will run smoothly."

Sugar Sprinkles felt worried about Pepper. She wondered if Russell was going to do anything about it. She continued watching to find out.

The pets waited and watched her leaving the backstage. But before she could leave, she stopped.

Pepper knew that she needed someone else to go out with her. She needed someone to be with her so that she doesn't get nervous in front of the crowd. So, she had an idea, and decided that she would need an assistant.

Pepper went back to the pets, making them slightly worry about her. But Pepper needed help with her act.

"I… need someone to be my assistant for my act."

"Assistant?" Russell repeated.

"Yeah… My performance need two pets."

The pets stared at Russell, signaling that he should probably be Pepper's assistant. "What?" asked Russell.

"I think you should be her assistant." suggested Zoe.

Sugar Sprinkles, still hiding behind the stool, was surprised. She wondered why the pets wanted Russell to volunteer to help Pepper. Was he talented? She didn't know any talents that Russell had. She continued watching to find out what happens next.

"…why?"

"Because we have our own talents to show off. Do you have a performance to do as well, Russell?" asked Vinnie.

Russell scanned through the names on his list, but his name wasn't on the list.

"Why aren't you doing an act as well, darling?" asked Zoe. "Don't you want people to praise your talent like me?"

Russell chuckled nervously; he didn't know how to answer a question like that. "Well… You see… Um… It's just that… Erm…"

Zoe knew what was wrong with him, and she felt sympathy. She decided to get to the point.

"… You don't think you have a talent, do you?"

Russell looked down. Zoe knew from his expression that she was spot on with that answer. Penny Ling didn't like seeing anyone sad either.

And Sugar Sprinkles didn't like seeing anyone sad either. Hiding behind the stool, she looked down, pitying Russell as her ears went down. She was convinced that Russell didn't have any talent, because she couldn't think of a time he did something impressive in front of her. Well, apart from the time when Russell caused a chain reaction that made the Sweet truck take off, but that was just a coincidence. So, she was convinced that he doesn't have any talent, but one thing kept crossing her mind… If Russell doesn't have talent, then why are the pets relying on him to do the organizing? Why are the pets following Russell's instructions? And more importantly, why was he voted to be Pepper's assistant? She just had to find out!

"Of course, he does have talent!" Vinnie said, "He can show the audience his amazing smartness skills."

Sunil though he had a good point, but asked "How do you suppose he will show that?"

Vinnie hadn't thought of that, but tried to think. "Maybe he can show the audience that he can use a calculator?"

"Anybody can push buttons on a computer, so I do not think using a calculator is talent. Good suggestion though."

Zoe said optimistically to Russell, "I know you have a talent, sweetheart. A talent that everyone wished they had. Even me."

"Sweetheart?" repeated Vinnie, catching what Zoe called Russell. This suddenly got Sunil and Vinnie laughing. Fortunately, Pepper could cut out the laughter by slapping both with her rubber chicken.

Sugar Sprinkles had her hopes as her ears stuck out, feeling curious. She guessed that she was wrong after all. So, Russell did have a talent? Sugar Sprinkles just didn't know it. What was it?

Russell ignored the two pets and looked up to Zoe and Penny Ling with hope. "I do? You really think so?"

"Of course, you have a talent, Russell." Penny Ling answered. "That talent… is being a great friend."

Sugar Sprinkles was most shocked. _That's Russell's talent?_ She thought. _Russell's talent is being a great friend? I… I…_

Sugar Sprinkles sighed sadly. She knew she made a huge mistake when she took out her anger on Russell. She knew he was one of the most innocent people she's ever met, and she just threatened him. But she also felt worse than Russell.

She realized she didn't only threaten somebody… She realized that she also lost a friend…

As soon as Russell heard what Penny Ling said, he was thinking. He never considered being as good friend as a talent, but it seemed like something he was good at. He knew he was a good friend to everyone, and he didn't like to see anyone sad either.

Penny Ling continued motivating Russell. "If you become Pepper's assistant, that will show your talent as well, because you're a great friend and great friends help each other, right?!"

Russell said with a smile, "You're right. Thank you so much, Zoe and Penny Ling. That means so much to me."

"Your welcome, sweetheart." Zoe said with a smile.

Penny Ling nodded with a big smile as well and said as she placed her paw on Russell's shoulder. "You're welcome, Russy."

Penny Ling hugged Russell to make him feel better.

Sugar Sprinkles couldn't take it anymore, she regretted what she did to Russell, and because of that, she thought she lost a great friend. She completely hid behind the stool and her eyes became heavily watery. She wiped her eyes and realized that she was crying! Sugar Sprinkles has never lost a friend before, and losing a great friend like Russell was a far bigger loss then she thought. Covering her face with her paws, she tried hard to stop the tears, but she just couldn't help it. Sugar Sprinkles has never felt so bad in her life!

She silently cried behind the stool, and no pet could hear her.

"Did Penny Ling just call him Russy?" pointed out Vinnie. Before Sunil could laugh, he spotted Pepper preparing her rubber chicken so she can whack them again with it.

Regarding this, Sunil resisted the urge to laugh; he didn't want to get slapped by the rubber chicken again.

So, he just said to Vinnie "I think we should not be laughing about a matter like this, friend." Pepper then laid down her rubber chicken, feeling proud of herself for not letting them make fun.

After Russell finished hugging, he took a deep breath, making his final decision. Russell finally turned to Pepper and confidently announced as he made up his mind, "I will be more than happy to be your assistant, Pepper."

"Great! Thanks, Russell! This helps so much!" she responded joyfully. Her nervous, green, nervous scent starts turning into a delightful, pink, sweet smell; that meant she's happy!

Not only did she have an assistant, but she also had one that she could trust. Russell wore a clown outfit that Pepper handed to him.

Sugar Sprinkles was still hiding behind the stool, she finally finished crying. Now was probably the time for her to leave the backstage and return to Buttercream at the table. She didn't want to keep her waiting. Silently but weakly, Sugar Sprinkles crawled away from the stool and left the backstage slowly. Luckily, no pet saw her.

Russell then got on the unicycle with Pepper (I'm not sure how), and they both rode out to the stage together. The other pets watched and cheered for them!

The crowd finally saw two pets onstage: Russell and Pepper. Quite surprising. Pepper whispered to Russell "Ok, Russell?"

"Yes?"

"I'll give you a banana, and I want you to eat it and leave the banana peel on the floor. I'll continue things from there."

"Ok, I'm on it."

Sugar Sprinkles returned to the crowd and sat on the table where Buttercream was sitting. Buttercream saw her and smiled. "Hey, Sugar Sprinkles. Look! Pepper-Kedepper and Bo-Bussell are performing."

Sugar Sprinkles looked at the stage and saw the two pets. She calmly watched them perform the act.

Pepper and Russell got off the unicycle and performed their first part of Pepper's act. Pepper stood on one side of the stage, pretending to make a phone call, whereas Russell stood on the other side with a banana in his hands. After finishing eating the banana, Russell tossed a banana peel right next to him on the ground. He was also next to a small trampoline, one of Pepper's props.

The customers were curious and were wanting to find out what happens next, especially Blythe and Youngmee. Blythe whispered to Youngmee, "Wow, Pepper is performing comedy with Russell? That's surprising."

"Really?"

"Yeah. This looks promising." Blythe replied excitedly.

Pepper, on the other side of the stage, got on her unicycle, and was approaching Russell. Still on the unicycle, she waved and Russell waved back. Suddenly, the unicycle's wheel contacted the banana peel on the ground between the two animals, and the unicycle slipped. It sent Pepper sliding towards Russell!

Bumping into Russell, they both flew in the air and landed on the trampoline that was next to them, making them bounce off the trampoline and sending them flying off the stage.

The customers exploded into laughter.

"OMG! They are hilarious when they're performing together!" commented Youngmee. Blythe couldn't agree more.

 _Pepper and Russell really are hilarious together_ , Blythe thought. _They should do this with each other more often!_

Russell and Pepper climbed back on stage and bowed together. Pepper complimented Russell's contribution, "Fantastic job, Russell! You're doing great! Ready for the next part?"

"Thanks, I'm actually enjoying this too! I'm ready, what's the next part?"

"Ok, I will bring two toy cannons, and I want you to get inside one, and launch yourself from it, aiming at me. But instead, I'll put a canon in front of me so that you fly into it. And then, I'll fire you at a cupboard!"

"Flying at a cupboard? Sounds pretty dangerous."

"What's the worst that could happen?"

They both cleared the sets, and placed two cannons, one on each side of the stage. The cannon on the left side of the stage had a cupboard behind it, hanging from the ceiling. The cannon on the right side of the stage had Pepper standing on top of it.

Russell went to the cannon on the left side, and got inside the cannon. Pepper, on the other side of the stage, was standing on top of the other cannon and being a target. Russell was supposed to hit the target, so he aimed at Pepper as she was the target.

The audience, Blythe and Youngmee were waiting, waiting for what the two critters were planning…

…

The cannon was fired, shooting Russell and making him fly! He was heading right towards Pepper! Things were going per plan.

Pepper was waiting for the right moment… and it was now!

While Russell was flying towards her, she swiftly got off the canon she was on and moved it so that Russell was going inside that cannon! When he landed inside the cannon, she snickered next to it and the customers laughed too.

Pepper decided to fire the cannon and Russell was sent flying once again! He was scared, but thrilled! The audience's laughter got stronger.

"Yahoo!" yelled Russell as he was flying for the second time. He was going towards the cannon on the left side of the stage, where he started off from.

Instead, he flew past that cannon and he headed straight for the cupboard that was behind the cannon, hitting the cupboard with his head! He fell to the ground. He makes a very dizzy face afterwards because of the impact. Everybody exploded into laughter, even Pepper onstage!

The cupboard above Russell begins to open due to the impact, and inside the cupboard was a pie. As the cupboard slowly opened, the pie rolled out and fell, landing right on Russell's face!

The pie splashed right into Russell's face, fully covering him in pie! The audience laughed even harder! What great comedy! And the stunt that Russell performed with the cannon was quite impressive too. Before Russell could try to get up from the ground, Pepper approached Russell and held out a hand to him, smiling. Russell smiled back and took her hand, letting Pepper help him get up. They both bowed together and the audience applauded more than ever!

Blythe, Youngmee, and Buttercream cheered for the two. And the two pets left the stage as they entered the curtains.

"That was crazy! I wanna see that over and over and over and over and over again!" said Buttercream.

Sugar Sprinkles agreed calmly, but that only lead her to feeling more guilt. She remembered when she watched Russell backstage. Remembering it was too emotional as well! She almost shed a tear, but instantly wiped it off so that Buttercream wouldn't notice it. Sugar Sprinkles knew for sure that she'd apologize to Russell after the night, when this whole thing is over.

As the two pets were making their way to the backstage, Pepper was so happy; her act was a success! And it was mostly thanks to Russell for helping her.

"Thanks, Russell!" thanked Pepper. "We did so awesome out there! You have no idea how grateful I am!"

"You're welcome, Pepper. I had a lot of fun too! I hope we can do this again." Russell said happily. "I guess there is still a bit of FUN RUSSELL left in me after all."

Pepper laughed. She realized that Russell wasn't as boring as she thought, nor was he so careful about absolutely everything. She remembers how Russell agreed to be her assistant in the first place, making her grateful. She guessed she just underestimated Russell.

 _Penny Ling and Zoe were right_ , Pepper thought deeply. _Russell does have a talent._

 _Russell really is a great friend…_


	14. I know how you feel

After the successful and hilarious performance, Pepper and Russell were happily walking together towards the group of pets in the backstage, who appear to be playing a board game. Let's see what kind of game they're playing, shall we? We see the group of pets sitting on the ground, around the board game that's also on the ground, and the board game seems to have tiny 3d characters on the board at various places.

"Oh dear," Sunil admitted in defeat after he moved his small 3d cobra to a position that forces that makes him lose some of his game money, "I seem to have stopped at Minka's property, and now I have to pay the price with my money."

Sunil looks at Minka's property (the position that his small 3D cobra figurine is in), and realizes that there is a pile of small 3d buildings piled up on each other! Sunil just gasped at the horror, because per the game board rules, it meant that he'd have to give away all his game money and that would mean he'll be instantly eliminated from the board game. Minka, on the other hand, just giggled and felt proud that there is a pile of small 3d houses on her property, because she considers it art somehow, and thought that was why Sunil looked at it in shock.

"Do you like it?!" Minka asked excitedly for feedback on her art as she jumped in joy and excitement, "I used a lot of these small houses and piled them up together! It's a masterpiece, isn't it, Sunil?! I think real builders should definitely think of making houses and pile them up like I did, so we can have so many neighbors!"

Sunil tried to think about what to say about this mess, but a few seconds later, it all just ended in a loud groan, since he couldn't think of anything to say. So, he just gave up and gave away his game money. The rest of the pets laughed together at this funny moment, and Sunil decide to join in the laughter as well, because why the heck not?! It's just a game after all and they are enjoying it together as friends, right?

Pepper and Russell, in the distance from the other pets, spotted the other pets. Pepper had a moment to think about her act. _It was awesome, and if it wasn't for Russell, I couldn't've done this act successfully, I probably wouldn't have even tried it. I'm glad Russell was the one who helped._

Pepper and Russell, in the distance from the other pets, spotted the other pets. Pepper had a moment to think about her act. _It was awesome, and if it wasn't for Russell, I couldn't've done this act successfully, I probably wouldn't have even tried it. I'm glad Russell was the one who helped._

Any who, the pets in the distance continued playing and having fun with the board game, until Vinnie glanced up and noticed Russell and Pepper. "Oh, hey! They're back!"

The other pets looked up to the two critters as well, and then they got up and approached the two quickly in excitement and wondering how their performance together went. They cheered for Russell and Pepper because they both look happy.

"Russell! Pepper!" Penny Ling said as she felt eager to know their results, "How did it go?"

Pepper was the first one to answer. "It was brilliant!"

"Really?!" asked Zoe in joy as she finally heard the good news, "Splendid work, you two!

"Heh… thanks, guys." Russell thanked the cheering pets in slight embarrassment as he had just realized he still looks like a clown who is covered in pie. He wiped the pie off his face with a random cloth that came out of nowhere, then he took out his notepad that had the list of names, "Any who, now that Pepper's act is finally over, it's Penny Ling's turn to perform."

This got Penny Ling excited; she always liked looking cute in front of the public and hearing them adore her as they say "Aww", and this was her chance! Excitedly picking up her ribbons (tied to a stick), Penny Ling said "Ooh! Yay, I'll go and do it!"

She ran in joy through the curtains while the other pets also cheered for her as she left. And she was now standing onstage in front of the audience, and they all instantly adore her just because of her cuteness! She looked adorable in her green dress and headband, and she tried to look even cuter as she makes an adorable facial expression. Aww!

Blythe and Youngmee, who are both still sitting at one of the tables, found the panda so endearing!

"She is so adorable!" Youngmee commented with a smile at Blythe, and she also agreed with her. "She really is, huh?" Blythe responded as she was looking in awe.

Penny Ling waved her ribbon in the air, which was a signal for the music to start. Minka, behind the curtains in the backstage, clicked on a button on the CD players and it played ballet music. Penny Ling faced the audience and began dancing around in style, making beautifully shaped patterns behind with her colorful ribbons and made sure that her dress also went with the flow in a way that was jaw-dropping to the audience. And it worked well. The audience were silent, but that was because they were speechless. Penny Ling perfected the dance! Her feet tapped the ground in the right moment with the music and it looked professional as her whole cuddly body was moving very smoothly throughout the dance.

Blythe, Youngmee and the rest of the audience continued watching Penny Ling onstage, quietly focusing on how she perfected the performance. Her dress did go with the flow, and so did her feet as they softly tapped the ground at the expected moment and synced together at best with the ballet music that's currently playing in the background. Her ribbons made so many colorful and attractive patterns at contrasting times; it made a twirl, it made a circle, a triangle, a star, and even a double helix pattern! But it was time to do the ultimate finish. Penny Ling stopped for a few seconds as her arms where her only body parts that were moving as they controlled the flying ribbons. With her eyes closed, Penny Ling slowly tiptoed forward, each second her tiptoe accelerated, making her go faster. And then as soon as the instruments in the background music got louder, she jumped! She spun in mid-air, allowing her arms to create unique patterns with the ribbon. The audience widened their eyes in amazement as colorful spotlights suddenly appeared and shone against the airborne panda, while simultaneously creating her shadow on the curtain behind her. The remainder of the colorful lights shining against the spotlight displayed so much life behind the panda, it was absolutely beautiful and made the overall act practically magical! And she did this all with her eyes closed! What a professional!

Penny Ling landed on the ground with one leg in front of her, and the other resting behind her. And that's when the background music stopped with all its instruments hitting their last note at once. The audience were left speechless; Penny Ling nailed the performance! Perfectly! The audience rushed up from their chairs and cheered and clapped! They've never seen a dance this amazing before! Blythe and Youngmee also got up and cheered. This panda deserved all the praise the audience threw at her! If not, she deserved more! Penny Ling opened her eyes and looked at the audience stood up and cheering loudly, it made her grin! She got up and bowed, and skipped into the curtains, back into the backstage and she met the other pets, responding the same way the audience did.

All of Penny Ling's friends praised her a lot. "Wow! You really have practiced a lot!" yipped Zoe. "You did not make a single flaw, Penny Ling!" Sunil stated.

"Thanks, guys!" Penny Ling said joyfully with a chuckle; her dance really was perfect, wasn't it?

Not so far away from their table, Blythe and Youngmee were seen by Buttercream and Sugar Sprinkles who were on another unoccupied table, and then the pets decided to jump off and join the two girls on the same table.

Youngmee felt Buttercream jumping onto her lap and smiled at her, "Oh, hey, Buttercream! Are you enjoying your stay at the restaurant?"

The bunny just nodded so that Youngmee could understand, and it made her smile that she could communicate a little bit with the bunny, just not verbally though. Blythe saw Sugar Sprinkles getting on the table and resting on it, so Blythe decided to ask her about the recent act with Pepper and Russell. "Sugar Sprinkles. Where you at the other table? Did you see Pepper and Russell's act?"

"Yeah, it was absolutely hilarious!" Sugar Sprinkles responded gladly, followed by her sweet chuckle. She tried to stay as happy as possible, but the thought about what Sugar Sprinkles did to Russell was something she would never be able to forget. And it just crushed her heart. She even unintentionally showed her sadness and Blythe noticed it.

"Hey… what's the matter?" Blythe asked as she petted the sad cat. It did make Sugar Sprinkles feel better, but it just wasn't enough compared to the amount of guilt she's currently feeling. And she can't fake her emotions, because her ears are hanging down and Blythe's already noticed how sad she is, so there's no point in lying. Blythe was smart after all.

Indirectly admitting her mistake, Sugar Sprinkles wondered and questioned if Blythe's felt like this before. "Well, I'm just wondering… have you done something you regret?"

This question surprised Blythe a bit. "Why?"

Sugar Sprinkles remembered the time when she threatened Russell just because he used the Biskits mayo without letting anyone know, but he was only trying to help after all. "I've… done something I wish I never did, and it makes me feel like worst thing to live."

Blythe felt sympathy for the cat; she knew what it was like to feel like the worst person to live. "…Would you like to tell me about it?"

Sugar Sprinkles looked up to Blythe and was thinking about whether she should tell Blythe about what she did. Russell is one of the nicest pets she's ever met, and he's probably one of the nicest pets Blythe's ever met as well. If Sugar Sprinkles told Blythe that she assaulted Russell earlier, that would tremendously break Blythe's heart! And Sugar Sprinkles never wanted to hurt someone's feelings ever again. So, she didn't want to talk about it. "I-I can't. It's a little personal."

Sugar Sprinkles looked away in sadness while resting on the table, hoping that Blythe wouldn't be onto her. Luckily, Blythe understood what she said, and was fine about it. She did want to help her though, so she asked softly with a smile, "I see. Well, maybe I can tell you about what it was like for me? Would that make you feel better?"

"Oh, y-yeah." Said Sugar Sprinkles in a slightly more uplifting tone as she was glad that she wasn't the only one who's experienced such guilt, but at the same time, she was curious about why someone like Blythe has experienced it. _I wonder what Blythe has done wrong. After all, she doesn't seem like the kind of person who'd do anything bad on purpose. Well this should be interesting!_

Blythe started telling Sugar Sprinkles about the time when Blythe felt guilt. For some reason, Youngmee and Buttercream were suddenly interested too, and listened to her as well. Sounds like it is time for a story! Blythe tells Sugar Sprinkles about the time she was about to leave to Fashion University North, aka FUN.

"It happened one day when I was accepted to go to Fashion University North, also known as FUN." Blythe started off. "And I was so excited to go."

"Well, congratulations!" Sugar Sprinkles said happily, but then wondered why that would be something that she regretted. Blythe continued the story, "Thanks. But unfortunately, I was literally the only one excited. My friends and my dad looked excited as well, but I kept getting the feeling that they didn't want me to leave."

Youngmee looked a bit embarrassed at her, because it was true; she didn't want Blythe to leave then.

Blythe continued with her story, "Even the pets were heartbroken. But no one wanted me to reject the university since they didn't want to let me down. So, the pets decided that they'd all make a short performance for me before I left to FUN; each pet showed their talent in front of me, and it was so wonderful. They said that it was a good-bye gift, but I would've only been gone for the summer."

"That's so sweet, Blythe!" commented Sugar Sprinkles. "So, the pets performed their acts? Like they're doing now in here?"

"Oh, yeah, like that! It's awesome that Russell did the performance with Pepper as well."

 _Surprising?_ "Why is that surprising?"

Blythe looked at Sugar Sprinkles with a slight concerned look. "It's because… that's the first time I've seen Russell do a talent performance like this."

"First time?" Sugar Sprinkles repeated in shock. "What about before you left to FUN? Blythe, you said the pets did a talent show. Didn't Russell do his talent act as well?

"Russell was the only one who didn't perform."

"Why…?"

Blythe thought about Russell. She thought about how he is the nicest pet she's ever met, and how he's so amazing to her. But Blythe looked back at why he didn't perform before. "…It's because he couldn't think of a talent he had."

Sugar Sprinkles' eyes widened. _That's exactly what I heard when I was eavesdropping on the others in the backstage! Russell admitted that he had no talent, but he was motivated by his friends._

Blythe continued talking about him, but she sounded sad. "He was the one behind the whole performance, it was his idea for a gift for me. He was working so hard on making the overall present so perfect for me, that he didn't have enough time to think about what he should perform himself. So, he didn't perform while the others did. I get the feeling that Russell believes he doesn't have any talent."

It was at this point when Sugar Sprinkles was now feeling major déjà vu. She instantly remembered hearing Russell saying he had no talent when she was spying in the backstage. _I kind of feel bad for him even more now_ , she thought deeply. Then, Blythe changed from her sad tone to a more uplifting one.

"But I knew Russell definitely had a talent." Blythe stated, "In fact, he also had a big heart. I mean, he made us look at the bright side, and he was always making sure no one got hurt. He was always nice to me, and we always got along well with each other. Russell made everything in the performance perfect and I couldn't have been more grateful. If Russell thinks he doesn't have a talent, then I'm telling you, he does."

"Russell's talent…" Blythe said happily in a soft voice, "is that he is such an amazing friend… and I'm so lucky to have him as a close friend."

The cat looked at Blythe in silence and thought about what she said. _Even Blythe thinks that Russell is an amazing friend, huh?_ "That's wonderful, Blythe." She commented in her sweet voice. It seems like Blythe's story has made her feel a lot better. If anything, she feels more motivated than ever to apologize to Russell.

"That's so sweet, Blythe!" said Youngmee softly as she heard the story too with Buttercream.

Blythe looked a bit embarrassed as she realized that she said. _I may have said too much about Russell_ , she thought.

Blythe continued her story, linking back to her regret, "So then I left to FUN, and the pets still wanted to talk with me. So, we could video chat with each other sometimes while I was still at FUN. Until there was one time where I couldn't see any of the pets in the video chat, and it made me feel worse because I missed them a lot. Luckily, I had an opportunity from FUN to be able to visit my old friends, pets and dad on a day pass, and that was all I wanted! So, I left FUN and returned to the Littlest Pet Shop, just to find Madison. And she told me that the pets have gone to FUN, and I was shocked. Luckily, I met Youngmee who helped by having her Aunt Christie drive us back to FUN to meet the pets."

Youngmee chuckled and wanted to finish off Blythe's story, which was fine by Blythe. Youngmee finished the story "Fortunately, I had a ginormous smoothie so I wanted Aunt Christie to pull up at a rest area. And it was a good thing too! Because that's where the Littlest Pet Shuttle stopped as well, and Blythe met Roger, Mrs. Twombly, and the pets! And then we had a picnic afterwards, and Blythe decided to not stay at FUN for the rest of the summer."

"That's right, Youngmee. One thing I regretted was going to FUN. It was a good experience and all, but I just missed doing everything else with you guys."

"Aww!" Youngmee said cheerfully as she hugged Blythe.

Sugar Sprinkles understood that Blythe regretted leaving her old friends and family, and that meant she didn't complete her stay at FUN. Having Blythe share her experience made Sugar Sprinkles feel better, and was now so determined to apologize to Russell, she just wanted to do it now. Sure, she decided earlier that she'd apologize to him after the night, but the sooner she did so, the better!

"Thanks so much for telling me, Blythe," thanked Sugar Sprinkles happily, "It's helped me so much. I think I'm going to go back to the others in the backstage."

"Ok, have a fun time." Blythe responded, feeling proud because she cheered up the cat. Then, Sugar Sprinkles got up from the table and asked Buttercream before she left, "Wanna come with me, Buttercream?"

"Nope thanks," Buttercream replied while she was on Youngmee's lap, "I wanna watch the rest of the performing performance."

 _Getting off the table, Sugar Sprinkles slowly made her way to the backstage, making sure she was doing the right thing. I wish I never threatened him. I want to apologize to Russell now, but what if he doesn't forgive me? Blythe hasn't said anything bad about him and said she's lucky to have a friend like him. Is Russell forgiving?_

 _I just hope so… I don't want to ruin my chances with him after all…_

Meanwhile, Youngmee was waiting for the next performance onstage, but Blythe had a sudden thought; a thought that wouldn't leave her head. It made her feel so bad about herself and it made her feel as guilty as Sugar Sprinkles.

"Is everything alright, Blythe?" asked Youngmee as she placed her hand on Blythe's arm.

"Oh! Um… yeah, I was just thinking about the pets." Blythe responded.

Youngmee smiled as she was happy that nothing was bothering Blythe. But something was bothering Blythe. It was about the pets, and it made Blythe feel bad for them. She realized how the pets were always on her side all the way and how they always cheered her up… But what has she done for the pets in return?

 _The pets are the best friends I've ever had_ , thought Blythe deeply. _I love them all so much! Ever since I met them in the beginning, they were happy to be my friend, and I'm so grateful for that. They all helped me with whatever problems I had, and I always appreciate them all the time. The pets are truly amazing, and I never want to lose them. I never want them to be separated from me, ever! But… sometimes, I feel like I don't give enough credit to the pets. What if the pets realize that and think I don't appreciate them…?_


End file.
